May 2023: Jim Brown is the Fourth and Final Lead of Rio Conchos to Pass Away

Formerly ecarle.

Lots of folks seem to think that NFL star Jim Brown made his screen debut in The Dirty Dozen of 1967...as memorialized by his famous "hand grenade dropping run," a little bit of movie history.

But actually Brown debuted a full three years before that -- in 1964 -- with the extremely entertaining, macho "men on a mission movie: -- the Western Rio Conchos.

I love that movie, and I love its breakdown of a four-man team into "two hip guys and two square guys."

The hip guys were Richard Boone and Tony Franciosa as rogues(one an unrepentent Civil War rebel, the other a wily Mexican thief). The square guys were Stuart Whitman and Jim Brown as the straight-arrow cavalry men assigned to keep the rogues in line under Whitman's command.

(And rebel Boone eventually finds respect for the African-American Brown; its that kind of "good movie.")

Since 1964, it has taken almost 60 years for all four leads to pass away. Jim Brown is the last one -- May of 2023.

Richard Boone went first, way back in 1981.

Tony Franciosa lived 25 more years, passing in 2006.

Stuart Whitman lived 14 more years, passing in 2020...not that long ago.

And now Jim Brown.

The team has been put to rest. Rio Conchos stands as an exciting tribute to "getting in right" in screen adventures...and "right" had a lot to do with the casting of those four men.