He got into the movies in the early ’20s, and he was a great storyteller. I learned a lot from talking with those people and watching them work. Johnny: Well, I was impressed by almost all of them. Do you remember who impressed you the most? I played an Indian, and that was a lot of fun - because I enjoyed riding bareback.Ĭ&I: During your five seasons on The Rifleman, you got to work with some notable up-and-comers - like Dennis Hopper, Warren Oates, Robert Vaughn, Harry Dean Stanton, and Dan Blocker - and established names like John Carradine, Agnes Moorehead, and Sammy Davis Jr.
THE JOURNEY BACK RIFLEMAN MOVIE
But I did use him in 1965 when I did a movie in Texas called Indian Paint with Jay Silverheels. She gulped - and then I had a wonderful horse. And then he asked my mother if he could send me a horse, because he had some foals coming along. But this rancher, this wonderful guy who loaned us these horses, he invited me to spend an off day riding on his ranch. Louis, a rancher loaned us three horses - one for me, one for Chuck, and one for the Indian who took a fall off his horse when we’d make our entrance. Johnny: And the funny thing is, while we were in St. And at the end, we took off our hats - and I was in heaven. Anyway, he and I had a little routine and a silly little song. Our first live appearance was during the St. I’ll tell you something that comes to mind. Johnny: Oh, there are so many to choose from. He was a lot of fun.Ĭ&I: What would you say is your happiest memory of your working relationship? He made it much easier than it might have been. And he treated me like an adult when we were working.
He tried to be a good influence for me, even off-camera. He was unique - I’ll never meet anybody else like him again. Really, it’s such a wholesome show - a healthy show. That, and the fact that there was always a lesson at the end of every episode. It’s like you mentioned - the strongest thing about it has always been that father-son relationship. What do you think is the secret of its enduring popularity? And the father-son relationship was a great handle for a lot of the writers as they told their stories.Ĭ&I: The Rifleman continues to attract new viewers and longtime fans in reruns. In fact, we had several scripts by Sam Peckinpah in the first season. When we got together to do The Rifleman, we just hit it off. Johnny Crawford: Well, we’d both been doing things before that, and even before I met Chuck, I was very impressed when I saw him in The Big Country. What sort of preparation did you have to do to make that work? On the occasion of what would have been his 76th birthday - he was born on this date in 1946 in Los Angeles - we are looking back at our 2017 interview with Johnny Crawford, who passed away last year.Ĭowboys & Indians: From the very first episode of The Rifleman, you and Chuck Connors developed a compellingly believable father-son relationship. Actor, singer, and musician Johnny Crawford would have been 76 today.
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