Cast notes for WICHITA

Two members of the cast of WICHITA, Vera Miles and Walter Coy, would both turn up the following year in John Ford's THE SEARCHERS. Vera Miles plays a character named Laurie in both films. Coy plays her father in WICHITA. In THE SEARCHERS, Coy plays John Wayne's brother and the adoptive father of the young man Laurie likes, played by Jeffrey Hunter, so he plays her prospective father-in-law.

Sam Peckinpah plays the bank teller in WICHITA. He would later direct four actors from this cast in three films: Joel McCrea and Edgar Buchanan in RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY, Jack Elam in PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID, and Rayford Barnes in THE WILD BUNCH.

Peter Graves and Lloyd Bridges both appear in the climactic gun duel scene on the main street of Wichita in this film. 25 years later they would reunite in the Zucker Bros.' comic masterpiece of movie parody, AIRPLANE! (1980), although they don't share a scene in that one.

Keith Larsen (Bat Masterson) and John Smith (Jim Earp), went on to star in their own western TV series. Larsen starred in "Brave Eagle," while Smith co-starred in "Cimarron City" and "Laramie." Larsen's character in this film would get his own western series two years later, with Gene Barry playing the role. For that matter, both McCrea and Bridges had their own western series, too--"Wichita Town" and "The Loner," respectively. Elam co-starred in "Temple Houston," with the aforementioned Jeffrey Hunter.

As someone else noted, McCrea was about 20 years too old for the part. Earp was still in his 20s when he briefly served as a policeman in Wichita. The film has him appointed as Marshal in Wichita. That never happened.