It's the 100th anniversary of the actor Rory Calhoun today -- Rory was best known for playing cowboys in his early career (he did eighty episodes of The Texan) and you can see why above; he looked the part. Which was supposedly in part because he was the part -- the story goes that he was a lumberjack and a "cowpuncher" before moving to Hollywood. Was that true or was it part of the myth that the infamous beefake-hunting super-agent Henry Willson promoted? I don't know but it sounds like something Willson would've fed to all of the press to make Rory seem as super masc as possible, all while Rory was out back fucking Guy Madison in the parking lot. I previously wrote about that legendary rumor, along with lots of Rory (and Guy) photos, at this link. There's also even better an incredibly gay bathing scene...
... starring the two of them in the movie Massacre River that I giffed the hell out of right here. Don't miss that one! I've still only seen Rory in a couple of movies -- How to Marry a Millionaire of course, and then his movie with Jacques Tourneur called Way of a Gaucho (which yes had him playing Mexican); then there was his sword-and-sandal epic The Colossus of Rhodes with Sergio Leone in 1961 (he looks fab in a toga) and then toward the end of his career (and the first thing I ever saw him in) was the horror flick Motel Hell. That might be it? Still I dig him. (It's the Guy Madison thing.) (Of course it's the Guy Madison thing.) If you have seen him in anything else and recommend tell me in the comments! And I'll share a trio of snaps of Rory rocking a speedo (while holding a shovel for some bizarre reason) after the jump...
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2 comments:
He was certainly a fine specimen. Never a great actor but for the most part a competent one.
Almost all the films that I would consider his better movies are so for other reasons than him. Millionaire-the female trio, With a Song in My Heart-Susan Hayward & Thelma Ritter, River of No Return-Marilyn Monroe, Robert Mitchum and the impressive cinematography, The Red House-Edward G. Robinson & Judith Anderson, I'd Climb the Highest Mountain-Susan Hayward again and on and on, but out of his many, many Westerns their is one that stands a bit higher above the rest and contains one of his best performances-1963's The Gun Hawk.
Otherwise most of his pictures are competently put together, decently performed but unexceptional...but the camera sure did love him.
I highly recommend his guest turn on Bonanza -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iF2b72f7ag4 -- the way he interacts with Adam, particularly while engaging in a bit of light bondage, makes me think that the rumors very well could be true. There's just a gleam in his eye. I get it, though :)
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