Steve McQueen's first big exposure in either film or television was, of course, "The Blob", the filming of which was completed long before WDOA went into production. And as those of us "boomer kids" fondly remember, the "good guys" always won. Steve McQueen's portrayal of the "benevolent bounty hunter" is so convincing, and the story lines so compelling, that you come away believing that bounty hunters were the ultimate "good guys". To me, it has been like renewing the acquaintance of a long-lost friend. "MeTV" has been airing re-runs of "Wanted Dead Or Alive" for several months now. Few who were born after, including most all of the reviewers here who have focused on the technical inaccuracies, ambiguities, and anachronisms of Josh Randall's weapon, have meaningful first-hand insight into what any of this was about. As such, the networks may have felt compelled to "out-weapon" one another from time to time. Realistic or not, these weapons were "cool" to every "boomer" kid, and the networks were keenly aware of that fact. Rather, they were meant to catch the attention of those rabid "baby boomer" kids whose parents were fortunate enough to own a television. These "weapons" were never meant to portray reality (well, "Yancy Derringer's" Derringer may be an exception). In "Wanted Dead Or Alive", the gimmick weapon-du-jour was Josh Randall's sawed-off Winchester. As another reviewer astutely pointed out, TV westerns of the day were rife with 'gimmick' weapons such as "The Rifleman"'s "rifle", or maybe "Yancy Derringer's", umm, "Derringer". Gray subsequently appeared in "To Paris with Love" (1954) and "The Gold Express" (1955), his first and only staring movie role.This show has been a favorite of mine from the time it first aired in the late fifties. Box felt that Gray had leading man potential, saying "At last, a new Man for British pictures." ( In this movie, he played the role of Marvin, a corporal in the United States Army. It was his role in "Death of a Salesman," at the Repertory Theatre in Windsor, Berkshire that got him a leading part in in a television play that again drew the attention of Box who hired him in her film "A Day to Remember," (1953). He appeared on the West End stage as "Duke" in the Broadway hit, "Stalag 17," which had a short run, and with a number of provincial theatre companies. She likely encouraged Gray to go to Britain because he was working there in the early 1950s. While visiting Canada to search for backgrounds for the movie "Campbell's Kingdom," British film producer Betty Box first spotted Gray in a local television program in Fort William, Ontario. He later joined the Ottawa Repertory Company. But Gray had been acting since high school days and, while working with an automobile firm in Windsor, Ont., he had acted for the Windsor Theatre Guild. Chief opponents were his father, Arthur Raham, a railway agent in Elk Point, and three engineering brothers who wanted him to be an engineer. "Ever since I can remember, I've wanted to be an actor," said Gray in a 1953 interview, but his family was dead set against his bid for a show-business career. Vernon Gray grew up in Elk Point, Alta., as Vernon Raham-Gray.
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