James Stewart! James Coburn! Western Double Feature! The Six-Shooter & The Gunfighter! Free Westerns

A Western Double Bill. One stars James Stewart, Best Actor Academy Award winner for THE PHILADELPHIA STORY, and one stars James Coburn, Best Supporting Actor for AFFLICTION. Two Shows starring Hollywood Legends!

First up is James Stewart as a gunfighter in a 30-minute pilot based on his popular radio character Britt Ponsett on THE SIX-SHOOTER. Stewart’s wearing his famous hat, gives an emotional performance and is supported by Barbara Hale, John McIntire, Edgar Buchanan and James Millican as the gunslinger. It’s called “The Windmill” (1955) and is one of several TV pilots Stewart made based on the radio series. For whatever reason, he’s not called Brit and THE SIX-SHOOTER did not find a sponsor. It would have been a terrific series.

Following James Stewart’s western is one featuring a young James Coburn. He was coming up through the ranks and making appearances on many of the top western and dramatic shows on television. HAVE GUN, RAWHIDE, BONANZA, CHEYENNE, SUGARFOOT, BRONCO, THE TEXAN, WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE and even THE RESTLESS GUN, which was a series starring John Payne that was based on Stewart’s THE SIX-SHOOTER.

In “To the Last Man,” an episode of TOMBSTONE TERRITORY from 1959, James Coburn plays a hired gunfighter out to kill series lead Pat Conway. You can’t take your eyes off him. The very next year, Coburn would join another actor known for TV westerns, Steve McQueen, for the classic feature, THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN. They would reunite again for the same director, John Sturges, in THE GREAT ESCAPE. Also featured in this episode is Ron Hagerthy, fresh off his role as "Clipper" on SKY KING and showing his ability at portraying a very different character, and veteran Edmund Cobb as the bartender. Cobb's career went back to a 1912 silent western, A PUEBLO LEGEND, and amassed over 600 roles in his career.

So, there you have it. Our two Prime Time Jimmys on tonight’s western double bill. They’re two of our favorites here at A WORD ON WESTERNS.

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