January 20 Birthday Wishes

Roscoe Ates [1895 - 1962]

Alex Nicol [1916 - 2001]

DeForest Kelly [1920 - 1999]

Howdy Pards!!

Roscoe Ates was another of the ole 1940's supporting actors, whose films are still being shown on the Encore/Western channel today. He is probably most famous for playing the comedic sidekick to Eddie Dean, another of the singing cowboys in many of the ole 40's matinee films. Alex Nicol was a 1950's film star that bore a strong resemblance to Bill Williams, another handsome blonde western star. Nicol appeared in several 50's B westerns as a Sheriff, boyfriend etc.
DeForest Kelly will always be "Bones", the wise, gruff physician on the original Star Trek, with William Shatner and leonard Nimoy.. Long cast as a Hollywood villain in B westerns like Warlock and too many more to name here, he found his niche with the part of McCoy in the sc-fi series and into the Star Trek movies.
Happy Birthday Fellas!!

Ed

I know Alex Nichol as Donald Crisp's ne'er-do-well son in The Man from Laramie.

DeForest Kelly played in many TV Western episodes, and, besides his role as Bones McCoy in Star Trek, is best known by Western fans as Morgan Earp in Gunfight at the OK Corral.

I remember Alex Nicol mostly from the westerns "Tomahawk", "Dawn at Socorro", "Law and Order" & "Man from Laramie." He made a great western badman. His character as the Indian hating spoldier in "Tomahawk" was based on the same character that Richard Crenna played in "Centennial." DeForrest Kelley also made a really bad dude in many westerns. Nicol went on to direct a few films, like the B-horror flick "The Screaming Skull" as well as acting in it.