6, ‘58, from 8:30-9pm ET on Saturday nights. Producer Vincent Fennelly was looking for an actor to play a bounty hunter in an episode of Robert Culp’s “Trackdown” and found McQueen “a little guy who looks tough enough to get the job done, but with a boyish appeal behind the toughness.” “The Bounty Hunter”, which aired 3/7/58, was a pilot for a new Four Star series CBS liked what they saw and ordered “Wanted…” for a Fall start. Performing in several plays and live TV, his only film roles prior to “Wanted” were in “Somebody Up There Likes Me”, “Never Love a Stranger” and “The Blob”. Discharged in ‘50, he attended school under the GI Bill of Rights, eventually getting into dramatics in NYC at the Neighborhood Playhouse. He then bummed around until he was old enough to join the Marines. Much of this was due to the close-knit working relationship of McQueen and scripter John Robinson (who wrote many original “Dragnet” episodes) to eliminate western clichés from “Wanted…”.īorn March 24, 1930, in Beech Grove, IN (a suburb of Indianapolis), Steve’s troubled childhood led him to reform school for 14 months. It was Steve McQueen’s unmistakable blue-eyed, individualistic, nonconformist attitude and charisma as intense, restless bounty hunter Josh Randall, who tracked down men (and women)-dead or alive-to collect the rewards for them, that made the series a ratings winner for 94 episodes between September 6, 1958, and March 29, 1961.Īlong the way Josh Randall diversed into seeking missing husbands, sons and fathers, hidden gold, a daughter taken by Indians, Army deserters, an amnesia victim, a man’s fiancée, a delinquent suitor, even a pet ewe (“Baa-Baa”-6/4/61) and Santa Claus (“The Eight Cent Reward”-12/20/58). Steve McQueen leaped off the small screen in one of the most memorable b/w half-hour TV western series, “Wanted Dead or Alive”, to become a bonafide movie star.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |