TV and movie stars played a big part in my education as to what it meant to be a man, particularly TV Westerns.
One of my favorite TV Westerns starred a giant of a man, Clint Walker, as the Wild West loner with the heart of gold and the moral fortitude to fight for truth and justice: Cheyenne.
I was fortunate enough to have a brief e-mail conversation with Mr. Walker’s wife a few years ago. She conveyed to me that he was pleased with my email and was at the time unable to answer my reply personally.
He had recently had some health issues and was going through physical therapy. Mr. Walker turns 90 years old this year.
Warner Bros. proudly presents ‘The Complete First Season’ of the TV Western series ‘Cheyenne’ on DVD.
For those of you unfamiliar with Clint Walker, he never set out to be a TV star. However his towering presence so impressed TV and studios executive it was impossible not to cast him as Cheyenne.
Each week Cheyenne would right a wrong despite what it cost him personally. He was a man’s man: men admired him and women loved him and kids looked up to him.
Cheyenne lasted for an impressive eight seasons the first of which had Cheyenne Bodie battle everything from rustlers to outlaws to Indians. Fists fly and guns blazed as Cheyenne mete out his own brand of two-fisted justice and always managed to get the bad guy.
TV Westerns influenced a whole generation and one of the few series that influenced more people was Cheyenne.
A DVD extra includes an interview with Clint Walker: The Lonely Gunfighter: The Legacy of Cheyenne.