Two New Interviews about De Kelley as a Rowdy Cowboy

I just landed two new interviews about De Kelley as a rowdy cowboy.

I’ll be on “Voices of the West” on July 21st at 4 pm Pacific Time and on “Yesterday USA Radio” on July 29th at 7:30 pm talking about De’s western career . Yee haw!  I hope you’ll saddle up and ride along!

If you’ve only seen De as Dr. McCoy, you’re in for a real treat. I have more than a half dozen anecdotes about De during his cowboy days.

Did You Know???

Did you know that Gene Roddenberry had to fight to get the studio to agree to having De as Dr. McCoy? It’s true! They were sure no one would ever be able to believe him as a good guy after the many years he spent portraying cowboy killers and ne’er-do-wells.

Did you know De couldn’t ride a lick until he landed his first role in a western? And did you know that it was a horsewoman and barnstormer aviatrix who taught him how to ride…in a single weekend? She said he was a natural!

Did you know De was seriously injured during the filming of Gunfight at OK Corral and that he wasn’t acting as he moaned and writhed as Kirk Douglas dragged him down a gully?

Did you know AC Lyles pulled a prank on De during the filming of Apache Uprising and that Rory Calhoun pulled one too many pranks on him–and how De got even with him?

Did you know De outran some real Indians during the filming of a TV show (prompted by the director) and that the Indians honored him for his fleetness of foot in a special way?

Did you hear about the prank that Dan Blocker and De played on the director Don MacDougal during a Bonanza episode?

Did you know De ended up in midair as the result of an unplanned encounter with a horse?

Did you know that De refused to define one of his rowdiest cowboy characters by shooting a dog in a scene, as the script called for?

Yeah, there’s lots to tell. I hope you’ll tune in. If you can’t catch the interviews live, they will be linked to from my home page so you can enjoy them later. De Kelley was more than the good doctor McCoy. He was an Oscar-worthy actor.

Voices of the West, 7/21/18, Author Kris M. Smith on DeForest Kelley