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Book Information

Best of the Badmen (Polecats, Varmints, and Desperados of Western Films)

Released:
December 5, 2005

Boyd Magers, Bob Nareau and Bobby Copeland
Forward by House Peters Jr., Jan Merlin, Michael Pate and Morgan Woodward Empire Publishing, Inc.
347 pages
Black-and-white photographs

The measure of how “good” the hero is in a Western film is usually based on how “bad” the villain is. Over the many decades of Western adventures there have been some wonderfully despicable bad guys and you can read all about them in the new book Best of the Badmen (Polecats, Varmints, and Desperadoes of Western Films). Extensively researched, the book features complete bios and photos on 315 Western screen heavies from 1930 to the TV era of the 1960s. The authors have also dug up facts and obscure information on the actors that have never been published before. Learn about their real lives as you prepare to boo and hiss them once again!

Just a few of the heavies featured in Best of the Badmen are Roy Barcroft, Harry Woods, Jack Elam, Noah Beery, James Coburn, Yakima Canutt, and Lee Van Cleef. Notable bad guys from Gene Autry Westerns also included are George Chesebro, Charles King, LeRoy Mason, Tris Coffin, Harry Lauter, and Myron Healey.


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