A dependable
character actor usually playing confident lawmen, polished businessmen and
cocky army officers, Bing Russell possessed a certain intangible appeal that
allowed him to carve out prolific acting careers, both in film and
television.
Russell enjoyed recurring roles as deputies in TV's
Bonanza (as "Clem") and The Big Valley, and a dramatic part as
John Wayne's right-hand man who loses his right leg in John Ford's Civil War
film, The Horse Soldiers.
Prior to a bang-up performance in the intriguing episode "The
Arrival" of The Twilight Zone, director John Sturges twice used the
talents of Russell, however sparingly, in the classic Westerns The
Magnificent Seven and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. In Seven,
Russell helps persuade Yul Byrnner and Steve McQueen to see that an Indian
gets a decent burial. Interestingly, O.K. Corral that centers around
the exploits of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday, would three decades later be
paralleled by George Cosmatos' Tombstone in which Russell's son Kurt,
would star as famed lawman Earp. |
