The old Western TV stars are riding off into the sunset...

When Pernell Roberts passed away earlier this week, it hit me that all the stars from the long-running 1960's TV western Bonanza are now gone. Lorne Greene passed away at the age of 72. Roberts was 81. As for Michael Landon and Dan Blocker...well, they left us too early in their lives. Landon died at the age of 54 and Blocker was lost to us at the age of just 43. Most of my readers can recall the exploits of the Ben Cartwright family as they filled our television screens weekly from 1959 to 1967.

The Ponderosa was the place to hang out once a week for a TV buff like me. And it didn't end there. I moved on to High Chaparral in 1967 and watched every episode of writer-producer David Dotort's next creation (he was also the culprit behind the Bonanza series),which was filmed about 20 miles from where I now live on a spot in the desert that Tucsonans call "Old Tucson". Leif Erickson played Big John Cannon the patriarch of the 1870s clan, which spent most of their time fighting off the Indians in hopes of saving their ranch from obliteration. Big John Cannon ran the ranch with his brother Buck, played by the great character actor Cameron Mitchell. Erickson died at the age of 74 in 1986 and Mitchell passed away in 1994 at the age of 75. The survivors from the High Chaparral series, which ended in 1971, include Linda Cristal, Henry Darrow and Mark Slade. Cristal portrayed Cannon's wife, Victoria, in the series; Darrow played Molonito; and Slade's character was Billy Blue.

Still around is Tucsonan Don Collier, who played ranch foreman Sam Butler in the series. He was also the United States Marshal Will Foreman in Outlaws (1960-62), shopkeeper William Tompkins in The Young Riders (1989-92), and the host of a local educational television show, called The Desert Speaks. I was in line at a local donut shop a few years back when I heard the tall fella in front of me place his order. I recognized the voice immediately. I knew before he even turned around that it was Collier. Don has made over 70 credited movie and television appearances in his career. He's now 81 years old. The last time I saw him on screen was in the 2008 theatrical release of Jake's Corner about a bunch of odd misfits in a fictitious town in Arizona. He played a character called Eight Seconds. His part in the flick was about that long as well. But to his credit, he's still ticking. I remember that voice and that face. I still love watching the old Western movies and actors like Collier who continue to portray the cowboy roles of the 1880s. Many have already rode off into the sunset.

My hats off to them.