Supporting actors shouldered the load in some TV Westerns

Who were some of the best supporting actors who became legendary “sidekicks” in the television Westerns from the 1950s and 1960s?

One who frequently comes to mind is the jovial character Pancho (Leo Carrillo), who appeared in “The Cisco Kid” (1950-56) as the loyal companion of Cisco (Duncan Renaldo).

 

Cisco and Pancho were technically Mexican desperados wanted for unspecified crimes but viewed by the poor as “Robin Hood figures,” as they scampered about through the American Southwest, assisting the downtrodden to attain frontier justice.

 

Cisco was a charming ladies’ man, dressed in a highly embroidered black outfit, while his slightly paunchy sidekick Pancho brought humor to the series with his contrived heavily accented comments.

Pancho usually used the dialect for comic effect, liberally salting his speech with malaprops, such as: “My ears, they are para-loused!”

 

Cisco rode a black horse named “Diablo,” while Pancho rode the light-colored “Loco.” When they would travel to a new location, Pancho always exclaimed, “Let’s went!”

 

Carillo was 70 when he agreed to play the part of Pancho. As a native of Los Angeles, Carrillo attended St. Vincent’s College there (the forerunner of Loyola Marymount) as an art student. He took a job at an illustrator at the San Francisco Examiner and later performed in vaudeville and theatrical productions. 

He bonded with fellow stage performer Will Rogers, and the two became lifelong friends.

 

In the 1950s era of “shoot-’em-up Westerns, neither Cisco nor Pancho, over the course of 156 episodes, ever took a life. Instead, “they routinely outsmarted the bad guys, showing that villainy was its own worst enemy. The formula made international stars out of Renaldo and Carrillo.”

Renaldo often commented about the positive “chemistry” that existed between the two men while on the set. Renaldo was a Romanian by birth; he came to the United States at a young age. He had hoped to become an artist, specializing in portrait painting.

He later took up acting and signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1928 and was frequently cast in Latino roles. None was more significant than “The Cisco Kid.”

 

Later in the 1950s, two supporting TV Westerns actors emerged in memorable roles as “trail cooks.”

They were Frank McGrath (shown above), who played Charlie B. Wooster on “Wagon Train” (1957-65), and Paul Brinegar (shown below), who played the part of George Washington “Wishbone” Haggerty on “Rawhide” (1959-65).

 

Charlie was “the reliable, cheerful and sometimes comical camp cook. He provided steady, humanizing companionship to the trail bosses and was known for his stories and banter with other characters. He offered a comforting presence when the trail got dangerous,” one TV critic commented.

 

“On ‘Wagon Train,’ only Terry Wilson, who played the assistant wagon master Bill Hawks, and McGrath appeared in all 272 episodes of “Wagon Train” in  the series, providing continuity across all eight seasons.”

 

Charlie is remembered for his scruffy beard and his upbeat, humorous demeanor. He could get gruff at times, but he was also proven time and time again to be a real softy at heart. In many ways, he was the “heartbeat” of the wagon train.

McGrath was born in Mound City, Mo., and was featured as the U.S. Army bugler in two of the most highly acclaimed Western movies ever made, “Fort Apache” (1948) and “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon” (1948). Both films showcased the talents of actor John Wayne, who performed with casts consisting of Hollywood heavyweights.

 

McGrath appeared in guest roles for several TV Westerns before being tapped to play Charlie on “Wagon Train.”

Wishbone is remembered as “the grizzled, crusty, cantankerous, bearded chuckwagon cook who was responsible for feeding the “Rawhide” cattle-drive crew, often providing comic relief along the trail.

 

He said his “signature coffee recipe” involved boiling a pound of coffee for 30 minutes, adding a horseshoe, and adding more coffee, if the horseshoe sank.

On the show, when Wishbone wasn’t whipping up food, he was whipping the character Rowdy Yates, played by Clint Eastwood, into shape, as a favor to the trail boss Gil Favor, portrayed by Eric Fleming.

 

Wishbone also got “tangled up” fairly regularly with his assistant, Harkness “Mushy” Mushgrove III, portrayed by James Murdock. Often in a grumpy mood, Wishbone would badger Mushy, which was his version of mentoring.

 

Brinegar was born in Tucumcari, N.M. For a time, he studied drama at Pasadena (Calif.) Junior College before enlisting in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He served as a chief radioman in the South Pacific.

After the war, Brinegar returned to California, where he applied his military training and experience to earn a living in the Los Angeles area as a radio repairman. He also resumed his pursuit of an acting career in his spare time, playing bit parts in movies.

During his career, Brinegar was cast in more than 100 Western films produced between 1946 and 1994, often specializing in playing “feisty cowboy sidekicks,” but he said: “Wishbone was the best job I ever had.”

 

“One of our best filmed stampedes was a real stampede,” Brinegar said of “Rawhide.” “The chuck wagons were knocked over, and it took a whole day to round up the herd.”

 

“Westerns are the only original U.S. art form,” Brinegar continued. “Outdoorsiness is a big part of the appeal of a story.”