![]() ![]() So, in the story he had to teach me how to crank that Winchester. In first scene that day Randolph Scott was to teach me you can do a lot of things with one hand and one arm. When I showed Monday, Budd said that was beautiful. Over the weekend I learned to crank it with one hand. I picked up the script and went to props and took home the Winchester. I told Budd I had an idea about my character using a Winchester. I was under contract to Warner Bros., making $275 a week, which was fine. ![]() Budd Boetticher gave me my first opportunity to star in a motion picture, and that was Westbound. What was it like working with directors Budd Boetticher and Sam Fuller? I got you.” That was the beginning of my love of sports, my love of movies and my love of Westerns. We drilled a hole in the top of a broomstick and pulled a string through like reins, put a pad in the middle of the broomstick, and that would be our horse. When we played cowboys and Indians, I was the only one who’d play the Indian. We’d sit there and idolize all of them and wanted to be just like them. I had a great love for Buck Jones, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Ken Maynard, John Wayne and all the great stars that did Westerns in those days. If we had a nickel, we’d buy a Baby Ruth or a Mounds, and that would be lunch or early dinner, because we’d stay and watch two shows. Everybody would exit out of the side instead of going out the front. After the first running of the movie and the serials, they would open the side doors. We didn’t have any money, but theaters had exit doors. Who was your favorite ballplayer and what movies did you like as a boy? The Washington Senators invited me to spring training in 1955 in Orlando, Fla., and the first moment I put on the uniform, I sat by my locker, turned my back on everyone and just shed tears. Number two was, without a doubt, putting on the major league uniform. When I received that bonus, the first thing I did was buy our family a brand-new four-door Buick-whitewall tires, radio and heater. I was underage but signed to a pro contract with a $6,000 bonus. What are some favorite memories from your days playing pro baseball? So I never really got a chance to share with the audience what I eventually was going to contribute to the character and the story. Custer became a very bad name, unfortunately, so we were off after 17 shows. I could make a wonderful marriage to this character and do something exciting and interesting and show to the American audience what kind of man and leader he was.īut passed away after the seventh show, died of a heart attack on the golf course, and we were knocked off the air because of political correctness. He was my favorite because he was a visionary and a militarist, a deep thinker, had a high element of a spiritual side. I had read a great deal about him and had tremendous respect and love for native Americans. What was it like to play Crazy Horse on the 1967 TV series Custer? I made notes about his character, but I never got a chance to play him. He began to get a little too aggressive, which led to his demise. He was a great horseman, and he and his brother were a team, and his gang was a family. I wanted to make him a colorful character. He was a colorful character, very deceptive and knew the territory and despised the railroad. What real-life Westerner would you most like to have played on-screen? Dante recently took time to speak with Wild West about his various careers. 1 (2021), co-authored by wife Mary Jane Dante and such novels and novellas as the post–Civil War Six Rode Home ( 2018) the Western sequel Winterhawk’s Land (2017) and the redemption tale Macabe’s Journey (2022), all from BearManor Media. Dante has since turned to writing both nonfiction and fiction, including the autobiography Michael Dante: From Hollywood to Michael Dante Way (2013) My Classic Radio Interviews With the Stars: Vol. From 1994–2008 he hosted the radio series The Michael Dante Classic Celebrity Talk Show, out of Palm Beach, Calif. Nursing a shoulder injury, he took a screen test arranged by big band legend Tommy Dorsey and left pro ball. Before moving to Hollywood, he played professional baseball in the Boston Braves and Washington Senators organizations. Born Ralph Vitti (Dante picked his professional name after signing with Warner Bros.) in Stamford, Conn., in 1931, he started acting in fourth grade and majored in drama at the University of Miami. ![]() Western film buffs would recall him best from such movies as Westbound (1959), with Randolph Scott Apache Rifles (1964) and Arizona Raiders (1965), both with Audie Murphy and as the title Blackfoot chief in Winterhawk (1975). Michael Dante, 91, appeared in nearly 200 big- and small-screen productions. This Actor from the Golden Age of Westerns Now Writes About His Career, History and the West Close ![]()
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