Will Kane

Last updated
Will Kane
Gary Cooper in High Noon 1952.JPG
Gary Cooper as Marshal Will Kane in High Noon
First appearance High Noon
Portrayed by Gary Cooper (1952)
Lee Majors (1980)
Tom Skerritt (2000)
In-universe information
GenderMale
Occupation Town Marshal (retired)
SpouseAmy Flower Kane (wife)
ChildrenWill Kane Jr. (son)
Religion Episcopalian
Nationality American

William "Will" Kane is the protagonist of the film High Noon (1952). He was first played by Gary Cooper, then by Lee Majors in High Noon, Part II: The Return of Will Kane (1980), and by Tom Skerritt in High Noon (2000), a remake for cable television.

Contents

Appearances

Gary Cooper originated the character in High Noon in 1952. [1] Cooper briefly reprised his High Noon role in an uncredited cameo appearance in the 1959 Bob Hope comedy Alias Jesse James . [2] [3] Lee Majors took over the role for in a made-for-TV sequel, High Noon, Part II: The Return of Will Kane (1980). [4] Tom Skerritt played Kane in a 2000 remake of High Noon for the US cable channel TBS. [5]

Fictional biography

In High Noon, Will Kane is a town marshal of the fictional Hadleyville, New Mexico Territory. It is both his wedding day and his last day as a marshal. He is about to leave town with his bride, Amy, to start a new life as a store clerk when the clerk of the telegraph office brings bad news: a man he sent to prison some years earlier, Frank Miller, has been released from prison and is arriving on the noon train. Kane, and the townsfolk who remember Miller, know Miller's visit is for one reason: revenge. Upon his conviction years earlier, Miller swore he would kill Will Kane. Kane's friends tell him to leave town, which he does briefly, but he feels that running away is not a solution, so he returns to face Miller and the gang. Will tries to find support from his friends and others, but none wants to help - they all tell him to leave town or offer reasons why they can't (or won't) help. Will chooses to stand up against this gang alone, even though it could result in his own death. After a brief gun fight in town, Kane kills three of the four men, while Amy also saves his life by giving up her pacifist religion to kill one of the men. As townspeople come out to offer congratulations, Kane takes off his tin star and throws it in the dirt. The film ends with Kane and his bride driving out of town to destinations unknown.

In High Noon, Part II: The Return of Will Kane, Kane returns to the town of Hadleyville, a year after the events of High Noon, and finds that the town is now in the hands of a corrupt marshal and his two aides. J.D. Ward, the man that replaced Kane as marshal, is a tyrant who shoots up the horses Will has just purchased. Ward is after Ben Irons and his men in order to get the bounty on them, even though Ward knows they are innocent. Ben gets away. Ward pursues him, and Kane decides to help Ben. Ben dies from a gunshot wound. Ward is going to arrest Kane for helping Ben, but the town rallies together and issues a warrant for Ward's arrest. Kane then again puts on the tin star and shoots Ward to death.

Development

Despite the iconic portrayal of the character by Gary Cooper (see below), "Cooper was not producer Stanley Kramer's first choice to play Marshal Will Kane." [6] Nevertheless, Will Kane is "one of Cooper's most famous roles." [7] Lee Majors explained that he accepted the role in the sequel, because "I've always admired Gary Cooper. And I wanted to do a Western again." [8] Ron Hardy, who directed the recent remake, argued that Tom Skerrit was an ideal actor to take over the role in the remake. Hardy explained that like "Cooper, he is Mr. Everyday. People know who Tom Skerritt is. They don't treat him like a superstar. They feel he's approachable." [7]

Reception

In 1952, Gary Cooper won a Golden Globe Award and his second Academy Award for his portrayal of Will Kane. [9]

While The Washington Post refers to the character as "A Classic Role," [10] Entertainment Weekly ranked the character fourteenth on its list of the top twenty "All-Time Coolest Heroes in Pop Culture" in April 2009. The magazine included him on its list because in "High Noon, Gary Cooper's retiring lawman faces down a killer and his goons despite being deserted by the rest of the town." Entertainment Weekly went on to cite his most heroic move as when "Kane's last ally gets cold feet, he tells him to go to his family, and then refuses the help of a teenager." [11] Kane was also ranked by the American Film Institute as the fifth greatest movie hero of all time. [12]

Nevertheless, although Cooper's performance has received considerable praise as indicated above, Majors and Skerritt's performances have not been so positively received. The New York Daily News referred to Lee Majors as "sadly miscast" as Kane in the sequel. [13] Entertainment Weekly also contrasted Cooper with Skerritt to Skerritt's disadvantage. Reviewer Ken Tucker reminisces upon "the all-purpose image of Cooper that's taken hold in the popular imagination: the gaunt, chiseled stone face, a stoic deadpan that rendered Cooper the leading-man, romantic-actor equivalent of Buster Keaton....By contrast, Skerritt saunters through the new Noon as if he were still the easygoing, ironic lawman of Picket Fences ." [14]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gary Cooper</span> American actor (1901–1961)

Gary Cooper was an American actor known for his strong, quiet screen persona and understated acting style. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice and had a further three nominations, as well as an Academy Honorary Award in 1961 for his career achievements. He was one of the top-10 film personalities for 23 consecutive years and one of the top money-making stars for 18 years. The American Film Institute (AFI) ranked Cooper at number 11 on its list of the 25 greatest male stars of classic Hollywood cinema.

<i>High Noon</i> 1952 American Western film by Fred Zinnemann

High Noon is a 1952 American Western film produced by Stanley Kramer from a screenplay by Carl Foreman, directed by Fred Zinnemann, and starring Gary Cooper. The plot, which occurs in real time, centers on a town marshal whose sense of duty is tested when he must decide to either face a gang of killers alone, or leave town with his new wife.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fred Zinnemann</span> Austrian-American film director (1907–1997)

Alfred Zinnemann was an Austrian Empire-born American film director. He won four Academy Awards for directing and producing films in various genres, including thrillers, westerns, film noir and play adaptations. He made 25 feature films during his 50-year career.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lon Chaney Jr.</span> American actor (1905–1974)

Creighton Tull Chaney, known by his stage name Lon Chaney Jr., was an American actor known for playing Larry Talbot in the film The Wolf Man (1941) and its various crossovers, Count Alucard in Son of Dracula, Frankenstein's monster in The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), the Mummy in three pictures, and various other roles in many Universal horror films, making him a horror icon. He also portrayed Lennie Small in Of Mice and Men (1939) and supporting parts in dozens of mainstream movies, including High Noon (1952), and The Defiant Ones (1958).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur Kennedy</span> American actor (1914–1990)

John Arthur Kennedy was an American stage and film actor known for his versatility in supporting film roles and his ability to create "an exceptional honesty and naturalness on stage", especially in the original casts of Arthur Miller plays on Broadway. He won the 1949 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for Miller's Death of a Salesman. He also won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor for the 1955 film Trial, and was a five-time Academy Award nominee.

The revisionist Western is a sub-genre of the Western film. Called a post-classical variation of the traditional Western, the revisionist subverts the myth and romance of the traditional by means of character development and realism to present a less simplistic view of life in the "Old West". While the traditional Western always embodies a clear boundary between good and evil, the revisionist Western does not.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Kane</span> American voice actor

Tom Kane is an American retired voice actor. He is best known for his work in animation and video games, most notably the Star Wars franchise.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeff Fahey</span> American actor

Jeffrey David Fahey is an American actor. He has portrayed Jobe Smith in The Lawnmower Man, Captain Frank Lapidus on the ABC series Lost and the title role of Deputy Marshal Winston MacBride on The Marshal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bass Reeves</span> American lawman

Bass Reeves was a formerly enslaved black man turned American law enforcement official and among the first black deputy U.S. Marshals. He is allegedly the inspiration for the stories about The Lone Ranger. He was one of the marshals west of the Mississippi River. He worked mostly in Arkansas and the Oklahoma Territory.

<i>Hang Em High</i> 1968 film

Hang 'Em High is a 1968 American DeLuxe Color revisionist Western film directed by Ted Post and written by Leonard Freeman and Mel Goldberg. It stars Clint Eastwood as Jed Cooper, an innocent man who survives a lynching; Inger Stevens as a widow who helps him; Ed Begley as the leader of the gang that lynched Cooper; and Pat Hingle as the federal judge who hires him as a Deputy U.S. Marshal.

<i>Alias Jesse James</i> 1959 film by Norman Z. McLeod

Alias Jesse James is a 1959 American Western comedy film directed by Norman Z. McLeod and starring Bob Hope and Rhonda Fleming. Based on a story by Robert St. Aubrey and Bert Lawrence, the film is about an outlaw who tries to kill an insurance agent who has been mistaken for him in order to collect on a big policy. Costumes by Edith Head.

<i>Man of the West</i> 1958 film by Anthony Mann

Man of the West is a 1958 American Western film noir film starring Gary Cooper and directed by Anthony Mann, produced by Walter Mirisch and distributed by United Artists. The screenplay, written by Reginald Rose, is based on the 1955 novel The Border Jumpers, by Will C. Brown. Julie London, Lee J. Cobb, Jack Lord, and Arthur O'Connell co-star with John Dehner, Robert J. Wilke, and Royal Dano in supporting roles. The film is one of Cooper's final Westerns.

<i>Lawman</i> (TV series) American TV series or program

Lawman is an American Western television series originally telecast on ABC from 1958 to 1962, starring John Russell as Marshal Dan Troop and Peter Brown as Deputy Marshal Johnny McKay. The series was set in Laramie, Wyoming, during 1879 and the 1880s. Warner Bros. already had several Western series on the air at the time.

<i>Lawman</i> (film) 1971 American western film

Lawman is a 1971 American revisionist Western film produced and directed by Michael Winner and starring Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, Lee J. Cobb and Robert Duvall.

<i>Frontier Marshal</i> (1934 film) 1934 film by Lewis Seiler

Frontier Marshal is a 1934 American Pre-Code Western film directed by Lewis Seiler and starring George O'Brien. Produced by Fox Film and Sol M. Wurtzel, the film is the first based on Stuart N. Lake's enormously popular but largely fictitious "biography" of Wyatt Earp, Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal. A second version of the film, also produced by Wurtzel, was made in 1939, and a third interpretation by John Ford entitled My Darling Clementine was released in 1946.

<i>Frontier Marshal</i> (1939 film) 1939 film by Allan Dwan

Frontier Marshal is a 1939 American Western film directed by Allan Dwan and starring Randolph Scott as Wyatt Earp. The film is the second produced by Sol M. Wurtzel based on Stuart N. Lake's biography of Earp Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal. An earlier version was Wurtzel's Frontier Marshal, filmed in 1934. The film was remade by John Ford in 1946 as My Darling Clementine, including whole scenes reshot from the 1939 film.

<i>High Noon, Part II: The Return of Will Kane</i> 1980 TV film

High Noon, Part II: The Return of Will Kane is a 1980 American Western television film and a sequel to the classic 1952 film High Noon. It starred Lee Majors in the title role, as well as David Carradine and Pernell Roberts. It first aired on CBS on November 15, 1980, in a two-hour time-slot. The film's screenplay was written by novelist Elmore Leonard.

<i>At Gunpoint</i> 1955 film by Alfred L. Werker

At Gunpoint is a 1955 American CinemaScope Western film directed by Alfred L. Werker and starring Fred MacMurray, Dorothy Malone and Walter Brennan.

<i>The Magnificent Seven</i> (2016 film) American film by Antoine Fuqua

The Magnificent Seven is a 2016 American Western action film directed by Antoine Fuqua, and written by Nic Pizzolatto and Richard Wenk. It is a remake of the 1960 film of the same name, which itself was a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 film Seven Samurai. The film stars Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D'Onofrio, Lee Byung-hun, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Martin Sensmeier, Peter Sarsgaard and Haley Bennett. It was the final film of composer James Horner, who died the previous year after composing part of the score; his friend Simon Franglen completed the music. Principal photography began on May 18, 2015, in the north of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

<i>High Noon</i> (2000 film) 2000 TV film

High Noon is a 2000 American Western television film directed by Rod Hardy and written by Carl Foreman and T. S. Cook. It is a remake of the 1952 film High Noon, also written by Foreman, itself based on the 1947 Collier's magazine short story "The Tin Star" by John W. Cunningham. The film stars Tom Skerritt, Susanna Thompson, Reed Diamond, María Conchita Alonso, Dennis Weaver, August Schellenberg and Michael Madsen. The film premiered on TBS on August 20, 2000.

References

  1. ↑ Richard Slotkin, Gunfighter nation: the myth of the frontier in twentieth-century America (University of Oklahoma Press, 1998), 391.
  2. ↑ Variety Film Reviews , March 18, 1959, p. 6.
  3. ↑ Harrison's Reports and Film Reviews, March 21, 1959, p. 46.
  4. ↑ Jeremy Byman, Showdown at High Noon: Witch-hunts, Critics, and the End of the Western (Scarecrow Press, 2004), 7 [ permanent dead link ].
  5. ↑ Howard Hughes, Stagecoach to Tombstone: The Filmgoers' Guide to Great Westerns (I.B.Tauris, 2008), 42.
  6. ↑ Susan Doll and Christopher Lyon, The Macmillan dictionary of films and filmmakers (Macmillan, 1984), 197.
  7. 1 2 "Actor Tom Skerritt plays Kane in 'High Noon' remake," The Dailer Courier (Sunday, August 13, 2000): 8C.
  8. ↑ "Lee Majors plays 'High Noon'," The Virgin Islands Daily News (November 8, 1980): 8.
  9. ↑ Pat Browne, The guide to United States popular culture (Popular Press, 2001), 201.
  10. ↑ Michael E. Hill, "Western Showdown; Tom Skerritt Takes on A Classic Role," The Washington Post (Aug 20, 2000).
  11. ↑ "The Top 20 Heroes," Entertainment Weekly 1041 (April 3, 2009): 36.
  12. ↑ "AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains" (PDF). afi.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-08-07. Retrieved 2010-05-21.
  13. ↑ ERIC MINK, "IT'S 'NOON' TIME AGAIN, BUT THE AIM IS TOO HIGH," New York Daily News (August 18th 2000).
  14. ↑ Ken Tucker, "TV Review of High Noon," (Aug 18, 2000).
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.