MovieChat Forums > The War Lord (1965) Discussion > Richard Boone was awesome

Richard Boone was awesome

posted 12 years ago by KodostheExecutioner
9 replies | jump to latest

Man that guy was made for historical pics. Even prehistorical ones. The looks, the bearing and that voice!

Really one of a kind.

[–] lexyladyjax 12 years ago

He was an actor's actor. Do you know anything about his life? Fascinating man, he was a WWII hero.

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[–] KodostheExecutioner 12 years ago

Yeah, he really walked the walk, didn't he? (unlike his frequent costar John Wayne). I knew from somewhere that he got into theater via the G.I. Bill, which goes to show that a little government help can go a long way. Other than that, I didn't know much about him. Just now, I looked him up on wikipedia. As I skimmed through the article, my eye landed on the bit about his famous underwriting of Israeli cinema from its inception. That seemed kind of random to me so I went back to the section on his early life. Turns out that Boone, who tended to play gruff-sounding men of violence, was a half-Jewish Stanford dropout. One his fathers's side, he's said to have descended from Daniel Boone's younger brother. Fascinating, indeed.

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] eddie-fendel 10 years ago

Quite right Kodos. Boone and The Duke were good mates.Any film with Richard Boone in,I will want to watch. He had great presence and that gravelly voice.Unusual for him to be in a historical film but he does fine as the faithful Bors.Watch the Western Hombre for RB at his best.

[–] Pilgrim07 10 years ago

I agree - Boone was great. Curiously, Charlton Heston was not happy with Boone's performance - in his journals (published as "The Actor's Life" in 1978), he wrote "Dick Boone would have been better if he had played the role differently". I can't fathom what Heston's problem with Boone was - of all the major parts, Chrysagon/Bronwyn/Draco/Bors/The Priest, Boone definitely had the least on the page to work with.

[–] lexyladyjax 9 years ago

"...[Boone] has the knack of making a character believable by just standing off to one side and slouching..." - Writer Don Miller, 1963

http://www.richardboone.net/quotes.htm

Boone was perfect as Bors. IMO Bors had been the servant of Chrysagon's father. He'd been the first to put him on a horse and he put Chrysagon on a horse for the last time. Boone was the better actor by far. Too bad Heston was unable to see it for himself. Boone had no need to speak to make himself understood by the audience. He made Bors come alive, for this watcher at least.

There are those who fail to comprehend that Chrysagon's wound was fatal. Bors knew that his Lord was dying. Some have to hear the words but there are those of us who can read faces. Boone had that gift.

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[–] greenbudgie 9 years ago

I like Richard Boone. But I didn't care for him in this one. He didn't come across as authentically medieval as Charlton Heston for me.

[–] MrDeltoid77 9 years ago

Always thought he would have made a perfect Thufir Hawat in Dune.

[–] eddie-fendel 9 years ago

Richard Boone was great as the faithful Bors and in every other film he was in. What great presence and that voice. His greatest moment IMO was playing Cicero Grimes in Hombre. The War Lord is a fine film with a mystique about it, plenty of action and at times quite moving.