Trivia / The Cowboys

• Cast the Expert: About half the boys were played by junior rodeo champions who were already experts at "cowboy skills" like riding and roping, and who needed to learn how to act. (The other half were played by actors who needed to learn how to ride and rope.)
• The Danza: Steve Benedict as Steve.
• Dawson Casting: A Martinez, who was in his early twenties, played teenaged Cimarron.
• Enforced Method Acting: Mark Rydell and Bruce Dern conspired for John Wayne to first be shot In the Back unscripted, wanting him to be just as surprised as the audience.
• Recycled: The Series: In 1974, Warner Bros. a television series of the same name for ABC starring Jim Davis, Diana Douglas, and Moses Gunn. David Dortort produced the series. Only A Martinez, Robert Carradine, Sean Kelly and Clay O'Brien were in both the film and the television series; the first two reprised their roles from the film, but the latter two did not. At the last moment, ABC decided to change the show's format by reducing its run time from one hour to a half hour, a change which made it difficult to tell stories effectively with the show's large cast. Only 13 episodes were filmed before the series was cancelled.
• Star-Derailing Role: Bruce Dern had a long career slump after making this film that he blamed on the scene where he kills John Wayne. In an interview, Dern revealed that Wayne had warned him the public would hate him for it.
• What Could Have Been: The role of Will Anderson was originally meant for George C. Scott.

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