George Bell

George Bell is a cowboy actor who has been constantly overlooked by western enthusiast. Starting in the 1940s, Bell was a regular in western movies that were filmed at Republic where Bell could be seen menacing the good guys as a part of the gang that were terrorizing the local citizens or he could be seen riding in a sheriff's posse. During the 1950s, Bell was so widely respected among his peers that he was frequently taken on location in various films. This was never more evident during the filming of the Gary Cooper movie "Distant Drums" where he and two other cowboy extras were chosen to join the primary cast and to portray soldiers where they were taken on location to Florida for 2 months. When he got back, he continued to appear in a various assortment of movies that were filmed at Republic and Warner Brothers. By the late 1950s, the age of the television western had arrived. There were countless westerns on the air and they all needed cowboys to fill their posse scenes. This couldn't have come at a better time for Bell because the once dominate Republic Studios had fallen into disrepair under the mismanagement of Herbert Yates and eventually was forced to close down. Bell found himself working various television westerns including a significant amount of work appearing a barfly or a henchman in many different Warner Brothers television productions. During the early 1960s, Warner Brothers started to divest itself from the television western market and Bell went on to appear for a few more years in shows like "Gunsmoke," "Bonanza", and "The Virginian". Eventually in 1964, George Bell decided to retire after more than 30 years as an on screen cowboy leaving behind a lasting legacy that encompassed the golden era of westerns.