Colt .45 (TV series)
Encyclopedia
Colt .45 is an American Western
television series shown on ABC
between 1957 and 1960. The half-hour show derives from the 1950 Warner Brothers film of the same name
starring Randolph Scott
and formed part of the William T. Orr
-produced "family" of Westerns which Warner produced for ABC in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Roy Huggins
developed the series, casting Wayde Preston
in the part of undercover government agent "Christopher Colt". Colt's cover would be as a travelling Wild West pistol salesman, hence the double entendre
of the show's title.
After about the first season, Preston and the studio had a falling-out and Christopher Colt's cousin, "Sam Colt, Jr.", portrayed by Donald May, became the series lead in 1959. Preston would eventually return for the final episodes.
The series was one of several Warner Bros. westerns on ABC during this period, including Maverick
with James Garner
, Jack Kelly
, and Roger Moore
, Sugarfoot
with Will Hutchins
, Cheyenne
with Clint Walker
, Bronco
with Ty Hardin
, and Lawman
with John Russell
and Peter Brown
. Various series leads occasionally did crossover
episodes on some of the other shows, and one of the most imaginative was the "Hadley's Hunters" episode of Maverick, in which Jack Kelly
as Bart Maverick comes upon Christopher Colt's sales satchel, abandoned in a room and covered with dust since the series had been cancelled the previous season.
The original opening theme music was performed by Hal Hopper, who also performed the theme for another western TV series, 26 Men
.
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
television series shown on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
between 1957 and 1960. The half-hour show derives from the 1950 Warner Brothers film of the same name
Colt .45 (film)
Colt .45 is a 1950 Western movie starring Randolph Scott as a pistol salesman/gunfighter and featuring Ruth Roman, Zachary Scott, Lloyd Bridges, and Alan Hale, Sr.. Sometimes known as Thundercloud, the film served as the loose basis for the television series Colt .45 seven years later. The...
starring Randolph Scott
Randolph Scott
Randolph Scott was an American film actor whose career spanned from 1928 to 1962. As a leading man for all but the first three years of his cinematic career, Scott appeared in a variety of genres, including social dramas, crime dramas, comedies, musicals , adventure tales, war films, and even a few...
and formed part of the William T. Orr
William T. Orr
William T. Orr was an American television producer associated with a series of western and detective programs of the 1950s-1970s....
-produced "family" of Westerns which Warner produced for ABC in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Roy Huggins
Roy Huggins
Roy Huggins was an American novelist and an influential writer/creator and producer of character-driven television series, including Maverick, The Fugitive, and The Rockford Files....
developed the series, casting Wayde Preston
Wayde Preston
Wayde Preston or William Erskine Strange was a television actor noted for the series Colt .45 and for his appearance as Waco Williams in a 1958 episode of Maverick entitled "The Saga of Waco Williams"...
in the part of undercover government agent "Christopher Colt". Colt's cover would be as a travelling Wild West pistol salesman, hence the double entendre
Double entendre
A double entendre or adianoeta is a figure of speech in which a spoken phrase is devised to be understood in either of two ways. Often the first meaning is straightforward, while the second meaning is less so: often risqué or ironic....
of the show's title.
After about the first season, Preston and the studio had a falling-out and Christopher Colt's cousin, "Sam Colt, Jr.", portrayed by Donald May, became the series lead in 1959. Preston would eventually return for the final episodes.
The series was one of several Warner Bros. westerns on ABC during this period, including Maverick
Maverick (TV series)
Maverick is a western television series with comedic overtones created by Roy Huggins. The show ran from September 22, 1957 to July 8, 1962 on ABC and stars James Garner as Bret Maverick, a cagey, articulate cardsharp. Eight episodes into the first season, he was joined by Jack Kelly as his brother...
with James Garner
James Garner
James Garner is an American film and television actor, one of the first Hollywood actors to excel in both media. He has starred in several television series spanning a career of more than five decades...
, Jack Kelly
Jack Kelly (actor)
Jack Kelly was an American film and television actor most noted for the role of "Bart Maverick" in the TV series Maverick, which ran on ABC from 1957 to 1962...
, and Roger Moore
Roger Moore
Sir Roger George Moore KBE , is an English actor, perhaps best known for portraying British secret agent James Bond in seven films from 1973 to 1985. He also portrayed Simon Templar in the long-running British television series The Saint.-Early life:Moore was born in Stockwell, London...
, Sugarfoot
Sugarfoot
Sugarfoot is the title of a TV western that aired from 1957 to 1961. The series featured Will Hutchins as fledgling frontier lawyer Tom Brewster and Jack Elam as sidekick Toothy Thompson...
with Will Hutchins
Will Hutchins
Will Hutchins is an American actor most noted for playing the lead role of the young lawyer Tom Brewster in the Warner Brothers Western television series Sugarfoot on ABC from 1957-1961.-Biography:...
, Cheyenne
Cheyenne (TV series)
Cheyenne is a western television series of 108 black-and-white episodes broadcast on ABC from 1955 to 1963. The show was the first hour-long western, and in fact the first hour-long dramatic series of any kind, with continuing characters, to last more than one season...
with Clint Walker
Clint Walker
Norman Eugene Walker, known as Clint Walker , is an American actor best known for his cowboy role as "Cheyenne Bodie" in the TV Western series, Cheyenne.-Life and career:...
, Bronco
Bronco (TV series)
Bronco is a Western series on ABC from 1958 through 1962. It was shown by the BBC in the United Kingdom. The program starred Ty Hardin as Bronco Layne, a former Confederate officer who wandered the Old West, meeting such well-known individuals as Wild Bill Hickok, Billy the Kid, Jesse James,...
with Ty Hardin
Ty Hardin
Ty Hardin, born Orison Whipple Hungerford, Jr., is a former American actor best known as the star of the 1950s ABC western television series Bronco.-Early life:...
, and Lawman
Lawman (tv series)
Lawman is an American Western television series originally telecast from 1958 to 1962 starring John Russell as Marshal Dan Troop and featuring Peter Brown as Deputy Marshal Johnny McKay on the ABC Television Network. The series was set in Laramie, Wyoming during the mid to late 1870s. Warner Bros....
with John Russell
John Russell (actor)
John Lawrence Russell was an American actor, and World War II veteran, most noted for playing Marshal Dan Troop in the successful ABC western television series Lawman from 1958 to 1962....
and Peter Brown
Peter Brown (actor)
Peter Brown is an American television actor known for his role as Deputy Johnny McKay opposite John Russell in the 1958 Warner Bros. western series Lawman.-Early life:...
. Various series leads occasionally did crossover
Fictional crossover
A fictional crossover is the placement of two or more otherwise discrete fictional characters, settings, or universes into the context of a single story. They can arise from legal agreements between the relevant copyright holders, or because of unauthorized efforts by fans, or even amid common...
episodes on some of the other shows, and one of the most imaginative was the "Hadley's Hunters" episode of Maverick, in which Jack Kelly
Jack Kelly (actor)
Jack Kelly was an American film and television actor most noted for the role of "Bart Maverick" in the TV series Maverick, which ran on ABC from 1957 to 1962...
as Bart Maverick comes upon Christopher Colt's sales satchel, abandoned in a room and covered with dust since the series had been cancelled the previous season.
The original opening theme music was performed by Hal Hopper, who also performed the theme for another western TV series, 26 Men
26 Men
26 Men is a syndicated American western television series about the Arizona Rangers, an elite group commissioned in 1901 by the legislature of the Arizona Territory and limited, for financial reasons, to twenty-six active members. Russell Hayden was the producer of the series and the co-composer of...
.
Guest stars
Colt .45 guest stars included:- Chris AlcaideChris AlcaideChristopher "Chris" Alcaide was an American actor particularly known for his role in television westerns. He surfaced to national attention as Deputy Joshua Tate in the 1956 film Gunslinger, co-starring Beverly Garland as a woman marshal.In 2003, Alcaide was among recipients, including the Sons of...
played Grimes in the 1957 episode "Small Man". - Francis De SalesFrancis De Sales (actor)Francis A. De Sales was an American actor. He was known for his roles on two early television series: as police Lieutenant Bill Weigand on the CBS and then NBC drama Mr. and Mrs. North and as Sheriff Maddox in the syndicated western Two Faces West...
starred in "Sign in the Sand" (1958). - Ron FosterRon Foster (actor)Ronald R. Foster, known as Ron Foster , is an American actor, whose longest-running role was as Dr. Charles Grant from 1991-1995 in the defunct CBS soap opera The Guiding Light....
, as Tommy Potts in "Bounty List" (1960) - Ron HagerthyRon HagerthyRonald F. "Ron" Hagerthy is a former American actor known primarily for his guest-starring and supporting roles on television westerns. In 1952, he portrayed Clipper King in the modern western series, Sky King, with Kirby Grant in the title role of Clipper's uncle, Schuyler "Sky" King, pilot of...
, as Deputy Jim Benson, and I. Stanford JolleyI. Stanford JolleyIsaac Stanford Jolley, Sr., known as I. Stanford Jolley was a prolific American character actor of film and television, primarily in western roles as cowboys, law-enforcement officers, or villains...
, in 1960 episode "Impasse" - Ron HayesRon HayesRonald G. Hayes was an American television actor who, as an activist in the environmental movement, worked for the establishment of the first Earth Day, observed on April 22, 1970. He was a member of the Sierra Club and a founder of the ecological interest group Wilderness World...
, who later starred in the syndicatedTelevision syndicationIn broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
series The EvergladesThe Everglades (TV series)The Everglades is an American crime-adventure television series that aired in first-run syndication for one season from 1961–62 and in reruns. Ron Hayes starred as Constable Lincoln Vail, a law enforcement officer of the fictional Everglades County Patrol who traveled the Florida Everglades... - Tyler McVeyTyler McVeyTyler McVey was an American character actor.-Early life and career:McVey was born in Bay City on Saginaw Bay in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. His first screen role, uncredited, came at the age of 39 in 1951, when he portrayed Brady in the The Day the Earth Stood Still...
appeared as Colonel Ben Williams in the 1960 episode "Absent Without Leave". - Bob SteeleBob Steele (actor)Bob Steele was an American actor. He was born Robert Adrian Bradbury in Portland, Oregon, into a vaudeville family. After years of touring, the family settled down in Hollywood in the late 1910s, where his father, Robert N...
in the series' first episode, "The Peacemaker" (1957) - Barbara StuartBarbara StuartBarbara Ann Stuart was an American actress.-Major roles:Stuart portrayed "Miss Bunny", the girlfriend of Sergeant Vincent Carter, played by Frank Sutton, on three seasons of CBS's Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C....
appeared as Belle in the 1959 episode "The Magic Box". - Randy StuartRandy StuartRandy Stuart, born as Elizabeth Shaubell , was an American actress whose longest running role was as Louise Baker, the wife of the Cold War spy in the 26-episode adventure television series, Biff Baker, U.S.A., which aired on CBS, with Alan Hale, Jr., as the title character...
, as Julie in the 1958 episode "Blood Money" - Gary VinsonGary VinsonGary Vinson was an American actor who appeared in significant roles in three television series of the 1960s: The Roaring 20s, McHale's Navy, and Pistols 'n' Petticoats.-Early life and career:...
appeared in the episode "The Runaway Groom". - John VivyanJohn VivyanJohn Vivyan was an American actor active primarily between 1957 and 1970. He was known for his starring role as the honest debonair gambler in the CBS adventure series Mr. Lucky.-Early life and career:Born John C...
, later cast as Mr. Lucky, a CBS adventureAdventureAn adventure is defined as an exciting or unusual experience; it may also be a bold, usually risky undertaking, with an uncertain outcome. The term is often used to refer to activities with some potential for physical danger, such as skydiving, mountain climbing and or participating in extreme sports...
series