Wow- tough ask.
Despite the misgivings about John Wayne, in The Searchers was very difficult to top.
Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach in anything.
Richard Widmark was sinister in everything.
that show came from radio where the Matt character was a real hard ass. sometimes even brutal and not always a clean shot easy death, lots of beat-downs.
the standards of tv and the desire to appeal to a multi aged audience really cleaned up the show.
Lee Van Cleef was rugged looking and so good and playing a bad ass as a character part that i would think of him first in that regard.
I was already very familiar with the radio version when Gunsmoke made it to TV. I was disappointed with the actors on TV. They grew on me over time, and I believe Dennis Weaver made all the difference.
Anybody remember the parodies (may have been Stan Freberg) where Chester says something like, “Muster Dillon, it’s Doc. He’s layin’ in the street with a arrah in his heart. That’s whut he’s doin’.”
I gotta vote for both Richard Boone and Paul Newman in Hombre.
And how about Steve McQueen as Josh Randall in Wanted: Dead or Alive?