The great character actor R. G. Armstrong passed away on Friday. He was 95.
Mr. Armstrong appeared in a couple 50s Westerns, From Hell To Texas (1958, below) and No Name On The Bullet (1959), but really made his mark in the 60s and 70s. Sam Peckinpah used him a number of times, beginning with an episode of The Westerner, with terrific results. Philip Kaufman’s The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid (1972) is an overlooked gem with a great part for Armstrong. As a kid, he scared me in Race With The Devil (1974).
Originally from Alabama, he got a Masters in English from the University Of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, just down the street. I doubt anybody on campus today knows who he is.
I’ve seen R.G. Armstrong in so many different TV westerns from the late ’50’s and early ’60’s I couldn’t tell you. I remember him being able to play both a really good guy or a really bad guy. He was totally believeable in any role he inhabited. One of the true sincere actors who was good in any role he played. Like Spencer Tracy, he was a natural in his own character, you just believed he was who he was. To tell you the truth, just like in “Big Jake”, “I thought he was dead” already. 95 is a nice old age though. RIP to one of the best.
I first noticed him in El Dorado but in reruns I remember him on The Andy Griffith episode when Elinor Donahue was trying to ‘pretty up’ his plain daughter.
He was the first sheriff, before Paul Fix, on The Rifleman.
Rich
“From Hell to Texas” was a substantial role for him in an outstanding Western–he was a principal character, the heavy though a complex and motivated figure, so for me did make his mark on the big screen in the 50s even if he is seen more later on. Yes, Peckinpah certainly liked him–his role as Mariette Hartley’s puritanical father in “Ride the High Country” was one of his best too.
Toby, I am honestly surprised and a little curious at your enthusiasm for “The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid”–I honestly disliked this pretty intensely when I finally saw it (and have liked other Kaufman movies like “The Right Stuff”). It seemed to me to reek of everything in 70s “revisionist” Westerns, especially the cynicism about it all, that is so antithetical to what’s great about 50s Westerns. So I’d be interested to hear what it is you like about it.
That’s not a slap on Armstrong, a terrific actor and always a powerful presence in the genre.
Haven’t seen Great Northfield… in at least 15 years, but I liked the way it played with the Modern Era creeping in (baseball, etc.), contained a bit of the myth-building angle (similar to Left-Handed Gun) and had Duvall in it — plus narration by PAUL FREES!
Also, the raid itself was well done.
While it has the look and some of the cynicism of a 70s Western (I’m gonna avoid the R word), in a lot of ways it still plays like the Westerns I love — and includes some of my beloved character actors (Armstrong, Elisha Cook, Royal Dano).
While I hate most of the Westerns that came after it (I’m not gonna name names and get beaten up over it), this one I still like.
I try not to use the R word either. I was lazy this morning so didn’t find a better way to say it.
Thanks for answering. Doesn’t convince me to see it again, but I will say I have liked it in other films when there are intimations of the modern era. So, for example, in this same year, “Ulzana’s Raid” also had a baseball game at the beginning at the cavalry outpost. There’s a 70s Western I do think is very, very strong–it’s exceptional. And it does feel like it’s made in the 70s but also really knows the genre–Alan Sharp a wonderful writer and Aldrich of course was a key figure for his earlier serious Westerns beginning with the two 1954 ones, even if there are few of these.
Robert Duvall, like Gene Hackman and a few others, is a key actor of later Westerns and someone I value. But it’s like Armstrong, Cook and Dano–no matter how much I love them (and couldn’t agree more about that), I can’t just automatically embrace everything they are in. Sometimes I’m sorry they somehow found their way into it, and just glad to get back to all the ones I love they are also in.
Yes, and he came back on Rifleman too in different roles. I’ve seen him in Rawhide, Gunsmoke, Big Valley(?) and others I don’t remember exactly. I just know he’s like a regular guest star on all TV westerns. Good real natural actor.
It’s the very very rare Western movie that I can say I like after 1965, except for all of Duke’s. I just didn’t like the way most all of them tried to portray all cowboys as dirty, kill happy, grubby, low-life bigots. That just ain’t the West unless you happen to hate this country. We have a lot of US self-haters in the country today, thanks to a un-ceasing revisionist liberal eye view in the public education system. I think this whole self-hating trend started in the mid to late ’60’s and this self hating drumming and teaching hasn’t let up yet. Is it any wonder a socialist can be so close in the polls against Romney? And I’m no big fan of Romney either.
As a huge fan of 50’s and 60’s TV westerns, I’ve seen R.G. Armstrong many, many times and was never disappointed at his presence on screen. You could not miss his piercing huge eyes. The scene in the Rifleman where he is the sheriff killed in the bar by James Drury’s character is a standout for me. Warren Oates is in that scene also, speaking of Peckinpah actors.
While the subject seems to have drifted to tastes in different eras of westerns…I have found some great ones in the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s and a few afterwards. But it is all a matter of taste. I do not know if I should launch into what I see as the difference between the earlier 50s and the later 60s/70s but it is not political. I just like a well done film that has all the ingredients, great script, great location which goes with great cinematograpy, great action scenes, great romance aspect, etc. The later ones I like better when there is an attempt shown now to have everyone fresh-scrubbed, shaven, etc when they are trekking the wilderness unlike the 1950s and I like to see the realism of when someone is shot there is some blood unlike the 50s. I could go on and on but I am fussy I think. I have looked at my collection list and want list and figure, if you do not count the spaghetti westerns to any great degree there are probably about 250 excellent or better westerns, period, by my standards and opinion. And I have around 800 westerns in my collection. There are lesser ones that are watchable but that is what see as the cream…250 approximately. Well, I have talked too long.