History Main / RetiredGunFighter

* ''Series/DeadMansGun'': In "The Resurrection of Joe Wheeler", a town drunk must return to his former life as a legendary gunslinger to save his town from a group of outlaws...with a little help from the Dead Man's Gun.

* ''SeriesDeadMansGun'': In "The Resurrection of Joe Wheeler", a town drunk must return to his former life as a legendary gunslinger to save his town from a group of outlaws...with a little help from the Dead Man's Gun.

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* Creator/ClintEastwood in ''Film/PaleRider.'' Yes, his guns were in storage while he acted as a priest, but that might have been more of a vacation than a retirement. The whole movie is meant to play him up as supernatural, not merely human. WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic?

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* Also parodied in the ''WesterAnimation/{{Recess}}'' episode "Dodgeball City", where Gus was known as El Diablo, the fastest dodgeball in the west, before he accidentally hit a little kid and swore never to play again. He returns to single-handedly defeat Lawson and the entire team of fifth graders then retires again.

* ''Film/{{Tombstone}}'', a 1993 Western movie, starts with Wyatt Earp, a well-known peace officer, settling down in Tombstone city. He refuses to get into any trouble saying he's retired. Of course, things soon get messy as [[spoiler:the leader of a local gang kills the town marshal, so Wyatt's two brothers take his place. As one of them is maimed by criminals, and another is killed, this [[ItsPersonal gets personal]], so Wyatt confronts the outlaws]].

->''I was good. I was ''real'' good. I was so good that once a day someone would ride into town to make me prove it. And every day I'd start my drinking a few minutes earlier. Until one morning, a guy who asked me to prove it turned out to be 16 years old. I left him there on his face, right there in front of the saloon. I left him there bleeding to death with my bullet in him.''

* Charlie, the main hero of ''Film/OpenRange'' is a veteran of the Civil War, specifically an elite raiding party, who afterwards became a hired gun, the experience of both of which have left him [[ShellShockedVetran shell shocked]]. But in the present day of the film, he has retired and spent the last ten years in the relative peaceful and nomadic life on the cattle trails. But unfortunately, that doesn't last forever...

* Also parodied in the ''WesterAnimation/Recess'' episode "Dodgeball City", where Gus was known as El Diablo, the fastest dodgeball in the west, before he accidentally hit a little kid and swore never to play again. He returns to single-handedly defeat Lawson and the entire team of fifth graders then retires again.

* A sidequest in ''Videogame/RedDeadRedemption2'' has Arthur Morgan track down various retired gunslingers in order to get a picture and some information for a book. Unfortunately for him most of them tend to be unstable/hostile individuals and usually force him into a duel that leads to their deaths. The one exception is Black Belle, a female outlaw who after Arthur helps out in fighting off bounty hunters complies with his requests.

* Both Obi-Wan "Ben" Kenobi and Yoda in ''Film/ANewHope'' and ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack''

* ''Film/{{Unforgiven}}''

* Eastood as Will Munny, in ''Film/{{Unforgiven}}'', along with [[Creator/MorganFreeman Ned Logan]].

* [[{{Trigun}} Vash]] tried to pull this one between the manga series, until his former allies and enemies found him, the townspeople didn't even realize it was him.

* Eastood as Will Munny, in ''Film/{{Unforgiven}}'', along with [[MorganFreeman Ned Logan]].

* Kilkenny, in several books by LouisLAmour, is TheDrifter because he wants to retire, but people won't let him once they find out who he is.

** Not borderline at all: Eastood as Will Munny, in ''Film/{{Unforgiven}}'', along with [[MorganFreeman Ned Logan]].

* Borderline: Creator/ClintEastwood in ''Film/PaleRider.'' Yes, his guns were in storage while he acted as a priest, but that might have been more of a vacation than a retirement. The whole movie is meant to play him up as supernatural, not merely human. WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic?

** Note the similarity between this example and the ''TheTwilightZone'' Page Quote.

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A special case is when somebody who is already established in the town turns out to actually be a Retired Gunfighter, in this case he comes as a complete surprise to the villain- might be used as a supporter of TheHero or a mentor to the YoungGun. He can also simply be a surprise hero, masquerading as a MeekTownsman until the villain shows up. Often his family and friends are surprised as they didn't know he was a gunfighter. If a major hero is pointedly identified as never carrying a gun, don't be surprised if he turns out to be a Retired Gunfighter.

* The Saint of Killers from ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}'' was this for a while - he hung up his guns and got married. Then she got sick during the winter, and a band of thugs got in his way, preventing him from returning with medicine in time. Then he picked up his guns again to get revenge on the thugs... and things went downhill from there. [[LikeABadassOutOfHell Really far down]].

* The Coyote Kid from ''WelcomeToTranquility'' was a murderous psychopath driven by the spirits of wind, fire, blood and death until he fell in love. The Kid settled down and started a family, which kept the spirits away until the day zombies "farmed" and ate his family and made him watch.

* The Saint of Killers from ''{{Preacher}}'' was this for a while - he hung up his guns and got married. Then she got sick during the winter, and a band of thugs got in his way, preventing him from returning with medicine in time. Then he picked up his guns again to get revenge on the thugs... and things went downhill from there. [[LikeABadassOutOfHell Really far down]].

-->-- ''TheTwilightZone'' TOS, "Mr. Denton on Doomsday"

* The title character in ''TheTwilightZone'' TOS episode ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Denton_on_Doomsday Mr. Denton on Doomsday]]''.
* JD Smith from ''TheDakotas''.

* The JohnnyCash song "The Last Gunfighter Ballad" (on the album of the same name).

* A storyline in the newspaper comic ''{{Latigo}}'' concerns an ex-gunman who goes straight after four years in prison, and becomes the preacher in the town of Rimfire. It originally ran in 1981.

* ''ArcanumOfSteamworksAndMagickObscura'' has a "retired" gunslinger in one sidequest who has got religion and cut off his index and middle fingers to make sure he can never use a gun again.

* Parodied by ''ThePenguinsOfMadagascar'' in "Mr Tux". Private is a retired mini-golf ace, and has to deal with a challenger who comes looking to beat the best. (Comes complete with the classic back-story speech.)