r/Westerns • u/OlinHollis • Aug 17 '26
Discussion Western Character Actor Appreciation: Edgar Buchanan
Edgar Buchanan's acting career was almost exactly coterminous with the Golden Age of the Western. He got his first roles in 1939 and his last was in 1974. Buchanan brought a downhome decency to most of his roles, even when, as he sometimes did, he was playing an alky. To my mind, his most memorable performance was in Ride the High Country (1961) where he played the besotted preacher of Coarse Gold, California. At a rude, shotgun wedding he unexpectedly delivers a very moving and sapiental sermon on the nature of marriage--"A good marriage has a simple kind of glory about it. A good marriage is like a rare animal; it's hard to find and almost impossible to keep. You see, people change." Yes, Edgar, in some ways they do. But Buchanan himself was constant. You could rely upon him to deliver a touch of roughhewn class to the films in which he appeared.
And so, hail! Hail! All hail Edgar Buchanan!
3
u/BrandNewOriginal Aug 18 '26
I've seen him in a few westerns at this point, and I always like him, but agreed, he was great in Ride the High Country. (Of course, it doesn't hurt that RtHC is wonderfully scripted, directed, shot, etc. It's one of my very faves.) He's also one of those actors in westerns who are just so suited to the genre by virtue of his looks: he looks like what I imagine a real character from the real west might have looked like.
3
u/OlinHollis Aug 18 '26
Agreed completely. And Ride the High Country is a hidden masterpiece. Sam never did anything better.
4
5
u/derfel_cadern Aug 18 '26
The director Jacques Tourneur doesn’t always come up on this sub, but Buchanan made a great movie with him, Wichita. It’s got Joel McCrea as Wyatt Earp. Really fun one.
1
1
4
5
u/honkytonkdaydream Aug 17 '26
I think he was a dentist prior to acting. Pretty impressive.
5
u/MoonSylver Aug 18 '26
My 83 y/o father always says "There's the old dentist!" every time he sees him. 😄
3
5
u/Comfortable-Dish1236 Aug 17 '26
No matter what, he’ll always be Uncle Joe to me. And boy, was he great in that role!
3
6
2
u/Independent_Prize453 Aug 18 '26
Ya gotta love a guy married 51 years and Unclw Joe in Petticoat Junction..a blond, red head, and brunette to enjoy as eye candy on the last days of his life. His western movies showed his resilience and did great in his expanded roles.