Jack Buetel

Jack Buetel (September 5, 1915 – June 27, 1989) was an American film and television actor.

Born in Dallas, Texas, Buetel moved to Los Angeles, California in the late 1930s with the intention of establishing a film career. Unable to find such work, he was employed as an insurance clerk when he was noticed by an agent who was impressed by his looks.

Introduced to Howard Hughes, who was about to begin filming The Outlaw, Buetel was signed to play the lead role as Billy the Kid, with the previously signed David Bacon being dropped from the film. Hughes also signed another newcomer, Jane Russell, for the female lead, and realizing the inexperience of his two stars, also signed veteran actors Thomas Mitchell and Walter Huston.

Buetel was signed to a standard seven-year contract at $150 per week and was assured by Hughes that he would become a major star. Filmed in late 1940 and early 1941, The Outlaw officially premiered in 1943 but was not widely seen until 1946. It was notable for suggesting the act of sexual intercourse, uncommon in mainstream movies of the era, and for allowing characters to "sin on film", without a suitable punishment also being depicted, in violation of the Production Code. Much of the publicity surrounding the release of the film focused on Jane Russell, and she established a solid film career, despite critics giving her performance in The Outlaw poor reviews.

Jane Russell

Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell (June 21, 1921 – February 28, 2011) was an American film actress, and was one of Hollywood's leading sex symbols in the 1940s and 1950s.

Russell moved from the Midwest to California, where she had her first film role in 1943 with The Outlaw. In 1947 Russell delved into music before returning to films. After starring in multiple films in the 1950s, Russell again returned to music while completing several other films in the 1960s. She starred in more than 20 films throughout her career.

Russell married three times, adopted three children, and in 1955 founded the World Adoption International Fund. She received several accolades for her achievements in films, including having her hand- and footprints immortalized in the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theatre, and having a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Early life

Born on June 21, 1921, in Bemidji, Minnesota, Russell was the eldest child and only daughter of the five children of Roy William Russell (January 5, 1890 – July 18, 1937) and Geraldine Jacobi (January 2, 1891 – December 26, 1986). Her brothers are Thomas (born 1924), Kenneth (born 1925), Jamie (born 1927), and Wallace (born 1929).

Thomas Mitchell (actor)

Thomas John Mitchell (July 11, 1892 – December 17, 1962) was an American actor. Among his most famous roles in a long career are those of Gerald O'Hara, Scarlett's father in Gone with the Wind, the drunken Doc Boone in John Ford's Stagecoach, and Uncle Billy in It's a Wonderful Life. Mitchell was the first person to win an Oscar, an Emmy, and a Tony Award.

Nominated twice for an Oscar, first for The Hurricane (1938), he won the Best Supporting Actor award for Stagecoach (1939); later, he would be nominated three times for an Emmy Award. He was nominated twice, in 1952 and 1953, for his role in the medical drama The Doctor, winning the Lead Actor Drama award in 1953. Nominated again in 1955, for an appearance on a weekly anthology series, he did not win. Mitchell won the Tony for Best Actor in a Musical, in 1953, for his role as Dr Downer in the musical comedy Hazel Flagg, based on the 1937 Paramount comedy film Nothing Sacred, rounding out the Triple Crown of acting awards. In addition to being an actor, he was also a director, playwright, and screenwriter.

Walter Huston

Walter Thomas Huston (/ˈwɔːltər ˈhjuːstən/; April 5, 1883 – April 7, 1950) was a Canadian-born American actor and singer. He was the father of actor and director John Huston, the grandfather of Pablo Huston, Walter Anthony (Tony) Huston, Anjelica Huston, Danny Huston, and Allegra Huston, and the great-grandfather of actor Jack Huston.

Early life

Huston was born in Toronto, Ontario, where he attended Winchester Street Public School. He was the son of Elizabeth (née McGibbon) and Robert Moore Houghston, a provincial farmer who founded a construction company. He was of Scottish and Irish descent. He had a brother and two sisters, one of whom was the famous theatrical voice coach Margaret Carrington (1877–1941).

His family moved from Orangeville, Ontario before his birth where they were farmers. As a young man he worked in construction and in his spare time attended the Shaw School of Acting. He made his stage debut in 1902. He went on to tour in In Convict Stripes, a play by Hal Reid, father of Wallace Reid and also appeared with Richard Mansfield in Julius Caesar. He again toured in another play The Sign of the Cross. In 1904, he married Rhea Gore (1882–1938) and gave up acting to work as a manager of electric power stations in Nevada, Missouri. He maintained these jobs till 1909 during which time the couple had a son, John in 1906.

The Outlaw

The Outlaw is a 1943 American Western film, directed by Howard Hughes and starring Jane Russell. The supporting cast includes Jack Buetel, Thomas Mitchell, and Walter Huston. Hughes also produced the film, while Howard Hawks served as an uncredited co-director. The film is notable as Russell's breakthrough role, turning the young actress into a sex symbol and a Hollywood icon.

Plot

Sheriff Pat Garrett (Thomas Mitchell) welcomes his old friend Doc Holliday (Walter Huston) to Lincoln, New Mexico. Doc is looking for his stolen horse and finds it in the possession of Billy the Kid (Jack Buetel). Despite this, the two gunfighters take a liking to each other, much to Pat's disgust. This does not prevent Doc from trying to steal the horse back late that night, but Billy is waiting for him outside the barn.

After that, Billy decides to sleep in the barn, and is shot at. He overpowers his ambusher, who turns out to be curvaceous young Rio McDonald (Jane Russell), out to avenge her dead brother.