Remembering Dennis Weaver

Dennis Weaver was born on June 4, 1924 in Joplin, Missouri. He grew up on a farm and was an outstanding athlete on the University of Oklahoma track team. He tried out for the U.S. Olympic decathlon team in 1948 and placed 6th. The eventual winner that year was track legend Bob Mathias.

A struggling actor for years he got his first break from actress Shelley Winters who helped get a role in the stage play “Come Back, Little Sheba”. His first film role was as a cowboy in “Horizons West” (1952).

In 1955 he tried out for a part of the deputy on TV’s “Gunsmoke” and added the limp and twangy accent to offset being cast against the towering actor James Arness who was cast as Matt Dillon. He would play deputy Chester Good for the next 9 years and won an Emmy. Weaver left the show in 1964 to star in the ill-fated series “Kentucky Jones”. This didn’t keep him down for long as he would star in several series among them “Gentle Ben” and the long running “McCloud” from 1970-1977. During this time he starred in the cult classic Steven Spielberg film “Duel” (1971). Weaver was president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1973-1975 and was inducted into the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1981. He later received attention for the construction of his environmentally friendly homes made of recycled materials in Santa Fe, NM and Colorado. Dennis Weaver was survived by his wife of 60 years Gerry Stowell Weaver and three sons.

Dennis Weaver appeared in the Euro-western “A Man Called Sledge” with many of his friends and fellow former Warner Brother actors. Today we remember him on what would have been his 85th Birthday.

European Western Essential Library

Das große Lexikon der DDR-Stars
Author F.B. Habel, Volker Wachter
Publisher: Schwartkopf & Schwartzkopf
Printed: 2002, German language
Paperback, 441 pages, photos

This book is invaluable when researching the East German DEFA films.
It covers all the main actors and actresses along with many of the
character actors who appeared in these films, many of which were
westerns starring Gojko Mitic. It gives biographical information and a
DEFA filmography for each person covered. A handy index helps find
names you’re not familiar with or there spelling. A must for your library
shelf if you are at all interested in these East German films.

RIP Waldemar Matuška

Czech pop singer and actor Waldemar Matuška died after a long illness at the age of 76 in Miami, Florida on May 30, 2009. The singer died of pneumonia and heart failure after suffering from asthma for a long time, his son Waldemar said. Matuška was one of the most popular Czech singers from the 1960s to the 1980s. He won the Golden Nightingale for the best Czechoslovakian singer twice in the 1960s. He also played in a number of films and film musicals, including All "My Good Countrymen" (1968), "Lemonade Joe" (1964) and "If a Thousand Clarinets" (1964). He left the country and asked for asylum in the United States in 1986. The Czech public learned about his emigration from an article in the Communist party's daily Rude pravo, entitled "The moral fall of a singer." After the fall of the Czechoslovakian communist regime in 1989, Matuška frequently visited his homeland. In 2007, Matuška sang in Prague for the last time when he celebrated his 75th birthday there. A farewell ceremony will be held in Prague at a date to be determined.

THE AVENGER

Texas, addio – Italian title
Adiós, Texas – Spanish title
Texas, Adiós – Spanish title
Adues, Texas – Brazilian title
Texas Adios – Brazilian title
Django i Kamp Mod Terrorbanden - Danish title
Django Skyd Først - Danish title
Texas Adios – Finnish title
Texas, addio – French title
Django, der Rächer – German title
Django 2 – German title
Adeus, Texas – Portuguese title
Texas Adios – Swedish title
A Fistful of Bullets – English title
Texas Goodbye – English title
Wanted Dead or Alive – English title
The Avenger – U.S.A. title

A 1966 Italian, Spanish co-production [B.R.C. Produczione S.r.l. (Rome), Estela Films
(Madrid)]
Producer: Manolo Bolognini
Director: Ferdnando Baldi [Ferdinando Baldi]
Story: Franco Rossetti, Ferdinando Baldi
Screenplay: Franco Rossetti, Ferdinando Baldi
Cinematography: Enzo Barboni [Eastmancolor, Ultrascope]
Music: Anton Garcia Abril
Song: “Texas Goodbye” sung by Don Powell
Running time: 93 minutes

Cast:
Burt Sullivan/Django - Franco Nero (Francesco Sparanero)
Jim Sullivan - Cole Kitosch (Alberto dell’Acqua)
Cisco Delgado - José Suárez (José Sanchez)
Mulatta girl - Elisa Montés (Elisa Perella)
Alcalde Miguel - Livio Lorenzon
McLeod - José Guardiola
Pedro - Hugo Blanco (Hugo Galiasso)
Dick - Ivan Scratuglia
Fernandez - Luigi Pistilli
banker - Gino Pernice (Luigi Pernice)
bounty killer - Mario Novelli
saloon girl - Silvana Bacci
with: Antonella Murgia, Remo de Angelis


The Continental cast and scenes of intense violence may earmark “Texas, Addio” as a Spaghetti Western, but the plot of this Italian/Spanish production unspools very much like its Hollywood counterpart. “Django” star Franco Nero's character provides the link; his two-fisted, taciturn Texas sheriff, Burt Sullivan, is cut from the same unwavering in-his-duty cloth as Gary Cooper's lawmen as he crosses the border to bring wealthy and sadistic Mexican crime boss Cisco Delgado (José Suárez) to justice for the murder of his father. Sullivan's body count may be staggeringly high by the film's fade-out, but his kills are strictly in defense of himself, his greenhorn brother, Jim (Cole Kitosch, aka Alberto Dell'Acqua or Robert Widmark), or later, a group of Mexican revolutionaries led by lawyer Luigi Pistilli that attempts to overthrow Delgado's corrupt regime. Director Ferdinando Baldi (whose Western curriculum vitae includes the more European-flavored “Blindman” [1971] and “Get Mean” [1975], with American ex-pat actor Tony Anthony) makes excellent use of the Almeira, Spain, locations (well photographed by future “Trinity Is Still My Name” director Enzo Barboni); and if his pacing is occasionally draggy, he more than makes up for it with a wealth of well-staged brawls and shoot-outs. His script (written with “Django” co-scribe Franco Rossetti) is lean and solid, with a hint of noir in its central dark secret regarding Delgado's relationship with Sullivan's family. ~ Paul Gaita,

You Tube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL4Qe2Z-OCc

Happy 60th Birthday Tom Berenger

Born Thomas Michael Moore on May 31, 1949 in Chicago, Illinois, he chose Berenger as his stage name after a school friend as there was already a Thomas Moore listed in the Actors Equity Assoc. After graduation from the University of Missouri he worked in regional theater and then mover to New York City. He worked on TV soap operas and made his film debut as the lead in the 1976 film “Rush It”. His career peaked in the 1980s with several leading roles. He continues to make appearances in film and television and became a producer in the 1990s. Berenger made two Euro-westerns “Rustler’s Rhapsody” (1984) as Rex O’Herlihan and “One Man’s Hero” (1998) as Sergeant John Riley. Today we wish him a happy 60th birthday.

RIP Jack Lewis

Screenwriter Jack C. Lewis died at his Hawaiian home on May 24, 2009. Born in Iowa in n1924, Lewis was an actor, stuntman and production assistant since 1949. He owned his own publishing company for 37 years and also owned Gun World Magazine before retiring 1997 and moving to Hawaii. He continued to write articles and books using the name C. Jack Lewis. He was a co-writer of 1965’s “Black Eagle of Santa Fe”.

Aux mains des bandits

Aux mains des bandits

A 1911 French production [Eclipse (Paris)]
Producer:
Director: Jean Durand
Story:
Screenplay:
Cinematography: Émile Pierre [black & white]
Running time:

Cast:
Joë Hammon (Jean Hammon)


Story unknown.