Ben Cooper, Actor in 'Johnny Guitar' and Lots of Other
Westerns, Dies at 86
Fast on the draw, he also was in 'Gunfight at Comanche
Creek,' 'Support Your Local Gunfighter' and 'The Fall Guy.'
The Hollywood Reporter
By Mike Barnes
2/26/2020
Ben Cooper, who portrayed the bandit Turkey Ralston in the
Joan Crawford drama Johnny Guitar, just one of his many
appearances in Westerns on television and the big screen, has died. He was 86.
Cooper died Monday after a long illness in Memphis, Tennessee,
his nephew, Pete Searls, told The Hollywood Reporter.
The boyish Cooper also worked opposite Audie Murphy in Gunfight
at Comanche Creek (1963) and Arizona Raiders (1965),
and stood out in Rebel in Town (1956), Duel at
Apache Wells (1957), Waco (1966),
Roy Orbison's The Fastest Guitar Alive (1967), Support
Your Local Gunfighter (1971) and One More Train to Rob (1971).
He also was on Gunsmoke three times as
well as on Bonanza, Tales of Wells Fargo, Wagon
Train, The Rifleman, Death Valley Days and
a 1961 Civil War-set episode of The Twilight Zone.
"They let me play cowboy, and they paid me [for
it]," Cooper recalled in an undated interview filmed for the Museum of Western Film
History in Lone Pine, California.
"I'd ridden horses, I got my own horse when I was 12. I used to jump him
bareback. I didn't know they had stuntmen; I'd watch a movie and then practice
on my horse until I could do [the stunt.]"
He said he also practiced his fast draw for 90 minutes a day
for four years.
In Johnny Guitar (1954), directed by Nicholas
Ray and filmed in Sedona, Arizona, Cooper rode the same horse that
carried Alan Ladd in Shane. His character, in a gang with Ernest
Borgnine, Royal Dano and Scott Brady, meets his demise at the end of a rope.
More recently, Cooper had recurring roles as district
attorney Alexander Waverly on Claude Akins' The Misadventures of
Sheriff Lobo and as the director on Lee Majors' The Fall Guy.
Born Sept. 30, 1933, in Hartford, Connecticut,
Cooper joined Life With Father on Broadway in March 1942.
The classic period comedy ran for more than seven years, long enough for him to
play two of the family's four sons, Harlan (for 15 months) and Whitney (for 21
months).
Asked how he got the gig, Cooper said, "I was the right
size, I looked right, I was very polite and I knew the whole [script]," he
said. "It was that simple."
He acted in more than 3,000 radio shows, attended Columbia University and worked on live television
before making his movie debut with an uncredited part in the film noir Side
Street (1950), directed by Anthony Mann.
Around a stint in the U.S. Army, he appeared in such other
movies as Woman They Almost Lynched (1953), The
Outcast (1954), Burt Lancaster's The Rose Tattoo (1955),
The Eternal Sea (1955), The Last
Command (1955), A Strange Adventure (1956)
and Outlaw's Son (1957).
Cooper also appeared four times on Perry Mason and
on The Time Tunnel, Adam-12, Mannix, Dallas and Kung
Fu: The Legend Continues.
Survivors include his daughter, Pamela, and her family and
his sister, Bunny.
COOPER, Ben (Benjamin
Austin Cooper Jr.)
Born: 9/30/1933, Hartford, Connecticut,
U.S.A.
Died: 2/24/2020, Memphis, Tennessee,
U.S.A.
Ben Cooper’s
westerns – actor:
A Perilous Journey – 1953 (Sam)
The Woman They Almost Lynched - 1953 (Jesse James)
Hells Outpost – 1954 (Alec Bacchione)
Johnny Guitar - 1954 (Turkey Ralston)
The Outcast – 1954 (The Kid)
The Last Command – 1955 (Jeb Lacey)
Rebel in Town – 1956 (Gray Mason)
Zane
Grey Theater
(TV) 1956, 1959, 1960 (Clint Harding, Sam Duskin Jr., Darryl Thompson, Sandy)
Duel at Apache Wells – 1957 (Johnny Shattuck)
Outlaws Son – 1957 (Jeff Blaine)
The Command (TV) – 1958 (Lt. Cohill)
Tales of Wells Fargo (TV) – 1959 (Matthew Land)
Wichita
Town (TV) – 1959 (Tom
Warren)
Wagon Train (TV) – 1959, 1960 (Tom Tuckett, Steve Campden
II)
Bonanza (TV) – 1960, 1961 (Sam Kirby, Johnny Lightly)
Johnny Ringo (TV) – 1960 (Reno brother)
Stagecoach West (TV) – 1960 (Jeremy Boone)
The Westerner (TV) – 1960 (Cal Davis)
Gunsmoke (TV) – 1961, 1965 (Pitt Campbell, Breck Taylor)
The Rifleman (TV) – 1961 (Simon Lee)
Laramie
(TV) – 1962 (Sandy Catlin, Johnny Hartley)
Gunfight at Comanche Creek – 1963 (Carter)
The Raiders – 1963 (Tom King)
Rawhide (TV) – 1964 (Clell Miller)
Arizona
Raiders – 1965 (Willie Martin)
Waco
– 1966 (Scotty Moore)
The Fastest Guitar Alive – 1967 (Rink)
Death Valley Days (TV) –
1969 (Jason Tugwell)
Red Tomahawk – 1967 (Lieutenant Drake)
The Virginian (TV) 1970 (Jason)
One More Train to Rob – 1971 (deputy)
Kung Fu (TV) – 1974 (Goodnight)
Support Your Local Gunfighter – 1975 (Colorado)
Lightning Jack – 1994 (shopkeeper in bank)
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