Jack Palance
Every time you watch a villain humiliating and goading an innocent man into drawing his gun, an action which will surely leave him dead, you are watching an impression of Jack Palance. To some degree, we all fear we’re like Elisha Cook, Jr. in Shane, the outgunned little farmer whose pride and unwillingness to back down will be our end.
Palance’s performance as Jack Wilson, a gunman hired by cattle interests to drive out homesteaders, is so wonderfully calculated, so sadistic, that it makes you admire Alan Ladd’s Shane, who had the same background, but regained his humanity, all the more.
The actor with the high cheekbones, piercing eyes, and clipped manner of speech brought fear to audiences for decades, often in crime films, and in Westerns made in America, Spain, and Israel. Like his Monte Walsh co-star Lee Marvin, he finally earned his Oscar in a comedy making fun of his menacing image, in 1991’s City Slickers.
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About the Author
Henry’s first book, The Greatest Westerns Ever Made, and the People Who Made Them, was published by TwoDot in 2024. The Brooklyn-born, L.A.-based writer has contributed articles to the INSP blog since 2016, been Film Editor for True West since 2015, and has written Henry’s Western Round-up, the online report on Western film production, since 2010. His screenwriting credits include Speedtrap (1977) and Double Cross (1994). He’s the first writer welcomed into the Western Writers of America for his work in electronic media. He’s done audio commentary on over thirty Spaghetti and domestic Westerns.
