MovieChat Forums > Western > Who has played in most westerns?

Who has played in most westerns?


I believe it's John Wayne, but do anyone have a list of other actors and how many they have acted in? Both American and spaghetti westerns

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I've tried to check IMDB, sort by genre, and only counted named roles, not extra parts.

John Wayne 87 (although he did have three other western credits, making it a round 90)
Randolph Scott about 60
Lee Van Cleef about 50
Audie Murphy 33
Joel McCrea 33
Gary Cooper about 30
Robert Mitcum about 30 (some in minor parts)
Glenn Ford about 25
James Stewart about 20
Charles Bronson about 20
Terence Hill about 20
Henry Fonda about 20 (+ the series The Deputy)
Lee Marvin 20
Kirk Douglas 18
Robert Ryan 18
Clint Eastwood about 15 (+ the series Rawhide)
Burt Lancaster 15
Robert Taylor 14
Sam Elliott 12 (mostly tv movies and a few classics)
Alan Ladd 12
Gregory Peck 11
William Holden 11
Kurt Russell 10 (+ a lot of tv work)
Paul Newman 7
Jeff Bridges 7
Kevin Costner 4





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nice one. Thanks for bothering. My first guess was either John Wayne, Randolph Scott, or Gary Cooper.

Recently I bought a 10 DVD pack of Wayne's b westerns from the 1930s. Just can't get into them. Snoozing.

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I made this list: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls063446900/

I would recommend the first thirty. After that it's not up to the same standard, although there might be a few where our opinion just differ.

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It's gotta be some old character actor that you're so used to seeing that you don't even NOTICE him. Gabby Hayes is a good guess, so are James Best, Denver Pyle, and Harry Morgan.

- Oh, SOMEbody asides me is gonna RUE this here particular day...

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That's true some of those character actors mentioned have done many more westerns than the stars.

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Yea a lot of actors have been in loads of westerns but you don't notice them because they are only in one scene
An example is bonito steffannelli

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Robert Wilke could be a contender, you reckon.

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It's amazing that Clint Eastwood is one two people who have basically become the most universally famous faces of the genre, the other being John Wayne, when John Wayne starred in almost 100 and Clint less than 20. He's that hugely associated with westerns but he was not actually in that many.. however the Clint westerns are generally amongst my very favourite.

I'd expect Ward Bond, Walter Brennan, Harry Carey Jr to have starred in a fairly decent amount too.

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