High Plains Drifter 50th Anniversary – Bonus, Hi Res cast member photos

High Plains Drifter 50th Anniversary – Bonus, Hi Res cast member photos

After closing yesterday with a final High Plains Drifter 50th Anniversary post, I was contacted later that evening by one of our UK correspondents, Kevin Wilkinson. Kevin mentioned that he had some beautiful cast member shots that he had been meaning to send me. There are also several other great and rarely seen shots that I will also be adding to our dedicated High Plains Drifter page. 

But I thought the cast member shots were quite exceptional, and as I pointed out to Kevin, I believe they rightfully deserved a post of their own. So as a bonus post, and to round off our High Plains Drifter 50th Anniversary week, I’m presenting them here. I have also added brief bios to each.

My kind thanks to Kevin.

Verna Frances Bloom (August 7, 1938 – January 9, 2019) was an American actress. On Broadway, Bloom portrayed Charlotte Corday in The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade (1967) and Blanche Morton in Brighton Beach Memoirs (1983). She made her film debut in Medium Cool, and then co-starred in Clint Eastwood's 1973 film, High Plains Drifter and in Badge 373 and in the 1974 made-for-TV movie Where have all the People Gone? with Peter Graves and Kathleen Quinlan. Bloom also had roles in more than 30 films and television episodes beginning the 1960s, including playing Mary, mother of Jesus, in The Last Temptation of Christ in 1988 and Marion Wormer in Animal House in 1978. Bloom died aged 80 on January 9, 2019, in Bar Harbor, Maine, from complications of dementia.

Marianna Hill (born Marianna Schwarzkopf; February 9, 1942) is an American actress who is known for her starring roles in the Western films El Condor (1970) and High Plains Drifter and the cult horror film Messiah of Evil (both 1973), as well as many roles on television series in the 1960s and 1970s. She was sometimes credited as Mariana Hill. Her film debut came in Married Too Young (1962). She played Gabrielle in the Howard Hawks film, Red Line 7000 (1965) and featured in the Elvis Presley film Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966); the Haskell Wexler political film Medium Cool (1969); the western El Condor (1970); the Clint Eastwood film High Plains Drifter (1973) as Callie Travers; the cult classic horror-thriller film The Baby (1973); and in The Godfather Part II (1974) as Deanna Dunn-Corleone, Fredo Corleone's hard-drinking wife. After moving to New York to teach at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, Hill moved to England in 1988 to teach at the Lee Strasberg Studio in London. She remained there until its closure in 2001. Today, Hill continues to teach at the Method Studio in London. 

Billy Curtis (born Luigi Curto; June 27, 1909 – November 9, 1988) was an American film and television actor who had a 50-year career in the entertainment industry. The bulk of his work was in the western and science fiction genres, portraying a little person. One of his early roles was uncredited as a Munchkin city father in The Wizard of Oz (1939). He featured as part of the circus troupe in Alfred Hitchcock's Saboteur (1942). He also appeared in Superman and the Mole Men (1951), a B-Picture intended as the pilot for the Adventures of Superman TV series. Curtis's work in westerns included the Clint Eastwood feature High Plains Drifter (1973) in which he was featured as Mordecai. He also appeared in the Musical/Western The Terror of Tiny Town (1938). As far as is known, the film is the world's only Western with an all-midget cast. Many of the actors in Tiny Town were part of a performing troupe called Singer's Midgets, who also played Munchkins in The Wizard of Oz. In 1973 he had a starring role in American International Pictures' Little Cigars (1973), about a gang of small people on a crime spree. Curtis died November 9th, 1988, aged 79 in Dayton, Nevada of a heart attack.

Theodore Ringwalt Hartley (aka Ted Hartley) (born November 6th, 1924) is a U.S. Navy fighter pilot, investment banker, actor, film producer, and is currently CEO of RKO Pictures. He was married to heiress, actress and philanthropist Dina Merrill until her death in 2017. His last acting credit was 2012 and his last producing credit was in 2015. His career in Hollywood saw him take on the role of Reverend Jerry Bedford on the 1960s television series Peyton Place. Hartley had featured roles in films with Cary Grant, Robert Redford and Clint Eastwood in High Plains Drifter as Inn keeper Lewis Belding, and then in the late 1970s was cast in his own series, ABC's Chopper One, about helicopter flying police officers. The series was short lived, and thereafter Hartley moved to Aspen, Colorado, where he volunteered as the Managing Artistic Director of the local theatre, and then turned to commodity trading full-time. Hartley is a frequent lecturer and is published periodically in business journals. He is also a published poet as well as a creator of stories for the screen.

Geoffrey Bond Lewis (July 31, 1935 – April 7, 2015) was an American actor. He appeared in more than 200 films and television shows, and was principally known for his film roles alongside Clint Eastwood and Robert Redford. He often portrayed villains or quirky characters. Lewis was born July 31, 1935, in Plainfield, New Jersey, but spent much of his youth in Wrightwood, California. He studied theatre arts at San Bernardino Valley College for two years, then worked as a truck driver and at other odd jobs before launching his career as an actor. Lewis appeared in TV series' including Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Mannix, Mission: Impossible, Cannon, Barnaby Jones, Mork & Mindy, The Golden Girls, Lou Grant, Mama's Family, Magnum, P.I., The A-Team, Titus, Murder, She Wrote, The X-Files, Little House on the Prairie, Highway to Heaven, Starsky & Hutch, Walker, Texas Ranger and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. In 1979, he appeared in Salem's Lot. He also played opposite Polly Holliday in the Alice spin-off Flo (1980–81) for which he received a Golden Globe nomination. He co-starred with Fred Dryer in Land's End (1995–96). Lewis worked frequently with Clint Eastwood in several films including Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Pink Cadillac, Any Which Way You Can, Bronco Billy, Every Which Way but Loose, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, and High Plains Drifter as Stacey Bridges. On April 7th, 2015, he died of a heart attack at the age of 79.

Walter Lee Barnes (January 26, 1918 – January 6, 1998) was an American football guard and actor who played in National Football League (NFL) for four seasons. He played in the (NFL) for the Philadelphia Eagles and in college at Louisiana State University. Barnes was an actor in both American and European films. He appeared in several films with John Wayne, Lex Barker, and Clint Eastwood. Barnes entered acting after appearing several times on The Eagles Nest, a local Philadelphia television show. WCAU television placed him on several local shows. His contacts with Walt Silver, a producer for Warner Bros. Television, led him into several appearances on television and films. Some of his more notable appearances included Bronco, Gunsmoke, Cheyenne, Bonanza, Have Gun – Will Travel and Death Valley Days. John Wayne got him a small role as Charlie the Bartender in Rio Bravo. Tiring of small roles and seeing opportunities overseas, Barnes was one of the many American actors who moved to Italy in the early 1960s. Kirk Douglas recommended him for a role in his The Vikings television spinoff Tales of the Vikings that was filmed for Douglas's production company in Germany. From 1960 to 1969, he was first active in pirate movies, then Karl May film adaptations and Spaghetti Westerns. Barnes returned to the United States in 1969 and appeared in more films and television series, which included The High Chaparral. His friendship with Clint Eastwood on Rawhide later led him to several roles in Eastwood's films (as Sheriff Sam Shaw in High Plains Drifter, as 'Tank' Murdock in Every which way but loose and as Sheriff Dix in Bronco Billy). He retired from acting in 1987 and became increasingly ill due to his diabetes. Barnes died on January 6th, 1998.