In general, I am not a huge fan of Western television shows with a few exceptions, but I have to say that Rawhide, which aired from 1959-1965, is notable for many reasons. First of all, it made a household name out of a young Clint Eastwood, who played Rowdy Yates. Second, many now famous actors/actresses got their starts as guest stars on the show, sometimes appearing in more than one episode. Third, during the seventh season, the opening sequence featured live action shots of the actors beings portrayed that transform into intriguing bronze sculptures. This is what really piqued my interest and inspired me to dig further and write an article about this unique Western television series. And that led to my fascination with Eric Fleming, who played Rowdy’s boss Gil Favor. A special thanks to Ellen Thorp for creating When Westerns Ruled and her in-depth and touching article on Fleming.
Eric Fleming – Gil Favor
Eric Fleming was born Edward Heddy Jr. on July 4, 1925 in Santa Paula, Calif. His dad was physically abusive towards him, and at the age of 9, there was a particularly sadistic episode in which his dad beat him so badly with the end of a belt buckle, that he was unable to get up for two days. When he recovered, the young Fleming reacted by holding a revolver to his dad’s head, trying to kill him. The gun misfired and Fleming ran away, hopping on a freight train. He ended up in gangs, committing thefts and petty crimes, until the age of 11, when he was badly injured in a gang fight and busted by the police. They were going to send him back to his dad, but when they saw the look of terror in his eyes, they sent him to live with his mom.
Fleming served as a Seabee in the Pacific during World War II, working as a master carpenter. The Seabees have a history of building bases, bulldozing and paving thousands of miles of roadway and airstrips, as well as completing a myriad of other construction projects, dating back to World War II. Although Fleming claimed to be 17, he was actually only 15, and because he looked older, the Navy never questioned him about his age.
The accident that actually led to Fleming’s hobby as a sculptor occurred in 1942 when he was stationed stateside at a foundry in Seattle. Somebody dared him to lift a 200-pound block of steel, and it slipped from the hoist and shattered his face. Fleming underwent four plastic surgery procedures to repair his face. His life ended tragically on September 28, 1966 at age 41. While filming the final sequences of High Jungle, an MGM adventure in Peru, Fleming’s dugout canoe overturned in the Huallaga River. Fleming was swept away by the current and drowned. The irony is that the never-married Fleming had finally found love and was going to marry Lynne Garber after the film was completed … and retire from show biz.
Surprisingly, I cannot find any information whatsoever about the bronze sculptures and there were no credits in the Rawhide episodes in which they aired. Is it possible Fleming himself created these sculptures? The poor quality photo I found of his somewhat crude sculptures implies probably not, unless these predated the busts by several years and his technique improved. Fleming spent hours painting and sculpting in his time off the set. His introduction to sculpture occurred because of his horrific facial injury. “My nose, as nature made it, was too big. I was fascinated by the way the plastic surgeon worked. I wanted to mould things, too. So I took to sculpture.”
I wonder whatever happened to these Rawhide sculptures and why they were not used during the entire seventh season or the final season. And why is there a mystery surrounding them – you would think that with the legions of Rawhide fans out there, an article would have been written and posted online.
Some of the notable actors and actresses who made guest appearances on Rawhide:
Eddie Albert – Green Acres
Michael Ansara – His second wife was Barbara Eden – their son died of an accidental heroin overdose in 2001
Frankie Avalon – Beach Blanket movies with Annette Funicello
Martin Balsam – 12 Angry Men, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Psycho, Oscar for A Thousand Clowns
Barbara Barrie – Barney Miller
John Drew Barrymore – Father of Drew
Richard Basehart – Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, La Strada
Frances Bavier – Forever in our hearts as Aunt Bea, on The Andy Griffith Show
Ed Begley – 12 Angry Men, Oscar for Sweet Bird of Youth
Ralph Bellamy – Rosemary’s Baby, Pretty Woman, Honorary Oscar in 1987
Theodore Bikel – The Defiant Ones, My Fair Lady
Robert Blake – Our Gang, In Cold Blood, Baretta
Charles Bronson – Death Wish, The Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen
Rory Calhoun – How to Marry a Millionaire, The Texan
John Cassavetes – The Dirty Dozen, Rosemary’s Baby, A Woman Under the Influence (Director)
Lon Chaney Jr. – Of Mice and Men, High Noon
James Coburn – Affliction, The Magnificent Seven, Our Man Flint
Jeanne Cooper – The Young and the Restless
Broderick Crawford – All the Kings Men, Highway Patrol
Johnny Crawford – The Rifleman
Robert Culp – I Spy, The Greatest American Hero, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice
Jim Davis – Dallas
Bruce Dern – Coming Home, Nebraska
Troy Donahue – The Godfather: Part II
Buddy Ebsen – Beverly Hillbillies, Barnaby Jones, Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Barbara Eden – I Dream of Jeannie
Anne Francis – Forbidden Planet, Honey West
James Franciscus – Naked City
Julie Harris – East of Eden, Most honored performer in Tony history
Kim Hunter – A Streetcar Named Desire, Planet of the Apes
Brian Keith – Family Affair, Hardcastle and McCormick
George Kennedy – Cool Hand Luke, Airport, The Naked Gun films
Shirley Knight – As Good as it Gets, If These Walls Could Talk
Martin Landau – Ed Wood, Crimes and Misdemeanors
Carol Lawrence – Broadway star: West Side Story
Cloris Leachman – Mary Tyler Moore, The Last Picture Show, Young Frankenstein
June Lockhart – Lassie, Lost in Space
Julie London – Emergency! Appeared with real-life husband Bobby Troup in one episode
Jack Lord – Hawaii Five-O
Peter Lorre – M, Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon
Gavin MacLeod – Mary Tyler Moore, The Love Boat
E.G. Marshall – 12 Angry Men, The Defenders
Dean Martin – At War with the Army, Ocean’s Eleven
Mercedes McCambridge – All the King’s Men, Giant, The Exorcist
Darren McGavin – Kolchak: The Night Stalker, A Christmas Story
Burgess Meredith – Rocky films, Grumpy Old Men, Batman TV show(The Penguin)
Dina Merrill – Butterfield 8, The Young Savages
Vera Miles – The Searchers, Psycho
Martin Milner – Route 66, Adam-12
Elizabeth Montgomery – Bewitched
Terry Moore – Come Back Little Sheba – states she was the secret wife of Howard Hughes
Agnes Moorehead – The Magnificent Ambersons, Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte, Bewitched
Leslie Nielsen – Forbidden Planet, Airplane, The Naked Gun films
Leonard Nimoy – Star Trek
Warren Oates – In the Heat of the Night, The Wild Bunch
Butch Patrick – The Munsters
Slim Pickens – Dr. Strangelove
Denver Pyle – Bonnie and Clyde, The Dukes of Hazzard
Claude Rains – Casablanca, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Notorious
Cesar Romero – Captain from Castile, Batman TV show(The Joker)
Mickey Rooney – Babes in Arms, The Human Comedy, The Black Stallion
Marion Ross – Happy Days
Harry Dean Stanton – Alien, Repo Man, Paris, Texas
Barbara Stanwyck – The Big Valley, Double Indemnity, Sorry, Wrong Number
Rip Torn – Men in Black, The Larry Sanders Show
Forrest Tucker – Auntie Mame, F Troop
Lee Van Cleef – The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, For a Few Dollars More
Dick Van Patten – Eight is Enough, Spaceballs
James Whitmore – Give ’em Hell, Harry!, The Practice
Dick York – Bewitched
Efrem Zimbalist Jr. – 77 Sunset Strip, The FBI, Hot Shots!
I took the shots of the sculptures, the above photo of a crazed Lee Van Cleef, and the following photos while watching the episode Piney, Season 7, Episode 3. It first aired on October 9, 1964. A bankrupt former cattle baron (Ed Begley) robs a bank and then plans to escape by joining Favor’s cattle drive.
Sources: When Westerns Ruled, WesternClippings.com, MyComicShop.com
Like this blog? Purchase an 
Great overall view of this great series!
I remember closing the curtains of the living room in the heat of summer, and my dad and I would watch Rawhide. It was probably broadcast with us (in Holland-Europe) in the afternoons. I remember the opening, later openings with alive people becoming statues!!
About 5 years ago I bought the first season on DVD, and I loved it. However, I vaguely remembered the statues, not in season 1 though. Later I managed to buy the complete series, on bootleg DVD’s. I am now in late season 4, at episode 138, and I don’t remember any of the storylines yet, nor did I see the statues.
Ok, I peeked, and watched some openings of later episodes, but still did not see any statues. I left it till today, searched the net, and reading the text on this site, it is finally confirmed, and so I was right when I was a kid, must have been 7 or so: the statues are indeed in Rawhide!
What a feast it will be when I finally come to an episode which I have seen 50+ years earlier!!!!!!!
Bedankt voor het schrijven! Hoe gaat het met u? You are the first person to comment from Holland! Ik spreek een beetje Nederlands. Ik woonde er in de vroege jaren 1980. Glad you like this article and are devoted to recapturing your childhood memories of this great series.
Pamela Egan Mary Smith Simpson sculpted the figures from Rawhide. She owned them outright and they were on loan for the filming. Sadly it seems some of them are lost in an earthquake, And the ones that are still around the family won’t sell. The work is phenomenal
Would it be possible to get pictures of the three? I absolutely loved the bronze sculptures. I remember watching Rawhide as a kid. And now watching all the reruns, I have come to realize how much Eric Fleming meant to the series. It was well cast with the characters playing the right roles. I would have loved to have met the cast down the road in life, but sadly, this never came to fruition.
Hi Bill:
Perhaps you aren’t aware – I wrote a follow-up blog with the input of the bronze sculptor’s granddaughter, including great photos: http://www.consumergrouch.com/?p=8492. Please take a look and feel free to download the photos – for your personal collection only.
Wow Betsy, that is a quick reply! Thanks for that. Great that you speak Dutch too. I guess that, if we carry on writing in Dutch we will have a very private conversation here, even more because it took 4 months for one reply to your great story.
I am watching Rawhide Episode 166, which originally aired in 1965. Wishbone comes to the aid of an abused woman played by Barbara Barry and her children. The statues and busts are in the credits in the opening of that show. They look fantastic and I would love to order a set of them if I could find them.
Hi J,
Great that you are watching too! Do you have the complete series?
Last time in August I wrote I reached No. 138. Since then I only came to No. 142. I now know I am not too far from the ‘statue’ episodes!
Earlier this year (having watched a Spaghetti Western with my adult son), I mentioned that while I very much like Clint Eastwood, I had a serious crush on Eric Fleming in my preteens through high school. I told my son how very sad I was to learn of Fleming’s drowning. I loved the way Fleming looked (having NO idea he had suffered a terrible injury to his face requiring the reconstruction of his orbital bone, nose, and jaw on the left side) and his deep baritone voice. Also, he was theater trained and it showed, e.g., his busy hands. As Gil Favor he was constantly reaching into Wishbone’s cupboard to get a biscuit and nonchalantly munching before chastising a drover.
Also, I recently learned of the terrible degree of abuse he suffered as a child and his club foot. Frequently, cast members wondered why Fleming had a penchant for walking around barefoot wherever and whenever possible. Sheb Wooley was the only cast member to mention that it was obvious one of his feet was malformed and imagined this foot may have caused Fleming pain. Wooley and Eastwood described Fleming as friendly, but not warm and fuzzy, and probably possessing a photographic memory as he could memorize a day’s scripts – all parts – with just a glance.
ANYWAY, my son purchased the entire Rawhide collection which I am still binging on and enjoying greatly. So many stars: Peter Lorre, George Kennedy, Julie London, Tom Conway (George Sander’s brother), Debra Paget, Abby Dalton, Terry Moore, Victor Jory, Lon Chaney, Jr., etc.
Rawhide started on Dutch television in 1963. We got TV at home in about 1966, so my first memories of the show are somewhere in season 4. I also remember my mother told me the actor who played Mr. Favor had already died. As a 9-year old, I found this very strange. I always looked out for Eric and as long as his name was on the list of players, I believed he must exist. But Rawhide disappeared, I grew up and was sure I would never see my hero again.
Then in 2009 Rawhide came out on DVD in the Netherlands! As you can imagine – this was like a miracle to me. Seeing the first excellent seasons, Eric walking and talking and in very good shape. It’s a pity only three seasons came out here. The rest I found mostly on YouTube. One part called Piney started with these wonderful statues – I watched it over and over again. Then after a short while Piney disappeared from YouTube, never found it again. You could say that I’ve turned the Internet inside out for information about Eric Fleming. I read somewhere that Eric Fleming made busts of his friends (or fellow actors?). I found an interview with Sheb Wooley who said that Eric liked to walk barefoot because he had contracted a fungus on his toes and interesting, although rather vague remarks from Sheb’s widow on Eric’s cause of death.
Hi Tina: Bedankt voor het schrijven en blij dat je genoten hebt van de TV show.
As Tina is obviously from Holland like me, I recognize her experience: Eric Fleming died and he was still on TV, which was very confusing. In fact, my dad cut out a newspaper clipping about his death, which I took to school in 1966. I watched part of the series before February 1965, because we moved houses in that month, and I saw episodes before that.
By now I have seen all 217 episodes, and besides the opening, the statues and all, in all honesty, I do not recognize ANY of the stories. Along the way I thought that moment would come, but somewhat disappointing, it did not. It is still my favorite series though!
Leuk om te horen van een andere persoon uit Nederland. Bedankt Kees voor het delen van je gedachten.
Like Kees, I don’t recognize any episode, scene or story, only sometimes a vague sense of deja vu – maybe I was to young for this. I also have the impression that there are little differences between the European and American episodes.
I always watched Rawhide with my father who certainly was a big fan of the show. Sometimes my mother took a look at the screen and I remember her words “Real men have hair on the chest” (probably to tease my father who lacked this at all).
Somehow I was sure she meant Eric. My mother probably wondered why I liked cows and rough cowboys and she gave it a try: “That’s Clint Eastwood, isn’t he cute?” (by that time Clint became a star in Europe with his Serge Leone films). I must have replied: “Oh, and the boss, who is he?”
Regarding the bronze statues, I think there’s a good chance that Eric Fleming made them. When he lived in New York he already worked with bronze. The human figure on the right that looks crude seems to be of clay. It is known that in season 7 after the first few months, Eric had serious difficulties with the two directors, who were replaced. Maybe he took the statues back then.
Here I am, sitting watching Rawhide – I bought every series/episode. It brings back a lot of memories – I was about 14-15 at the time.
I am watching an old B & W western series in 2017, and I thought I had watched every episode when I was a kid back in the 60’s. I don’t remember any of these in series 7; Rowdy quits as Ramrod, episode 4, Gil Favor loses a whole herd.
I still like the theme song at the beginning and the end. I used to email Frankie Laine in his later years and was shocked when he died in 2007. I still have the 45 he sent me with his autograph – no amount of money could buy it from me.
I reckon I will have to start all over again and see what I missed!
The bronze figures you mention here, I wouldn’t mind owning even copies of them, if I could get hold of any of them, I could resin cast them for collectors or just fans of Rawhide
I’m a Rawhide fan and often wondered about where the statues ended up.
At the funeral today for musician and artist Pamela Edith Mary Smith Simpson, the family noted that she sculpted the statues. Family has a picture of Pamela and Clint with the sculpture.
Hi Ken – I appreciate your sharing this information. I couldn’t find anything when I did a Google search on Pamela Edith Mary Smith Simpson. Perhaps she went by another or shorter name as an artist. Can you send any other information – e.g., a link to her obituary or the funeral home? Thanks much.
Today I found an interesting biography about Eric Fleming online, called Television Western Players 1960-1975. His life and acting abilities are described in detail and objectively. It puts a new light (to me) on why he left Rawhide, why he went to Hawaii and decided to do High Jungle, and explains what happened after his death. This biography answers some questions I had for a long time.
The recent information about the sculptures is also very interesting!
A small correction to a welcome discussion: Clint’s character was Rowdy Yates, not Rowdy Gaines.
Thank you for pointing this out, Wild Bill – I have no idea how I made that mistake! It has been corrected.
Friday night sitting down after just running to get my sweets from paper shop, with my pocket money. Rawhide on at 7 … happy memories from a working class child in England took us away from our otherwise foggy, dull, dreary class-obsessed England. Thank you.
Thanks for your touching and eloquent sentiment – glad my blog brought back happy memories!
Hello,
I’m a big fan of the Rawhide television series, but this morning was the first time I noticed the season 7 intro, and the characters turning into statutes. My first thought was that they were Frederic Remington statutes. I’ve only just begun to search because I find that very interesting, and your post is the only one to come up in a search. Hopefully someone, somewhere will find the answer to this mystery.
It’s always sad to remember Eric Fleming and his awful end. Rawhide was only spoiled by overuse of those fake exteriors. Another sad thing to me is that I cannot recall Clint offering a solitary word of remembrance for his late colleague, without whom Rawhide would have been a much poorer series.
I too had a super crush on Eric Fleming in my late teens, even though he had 20 years on me. I have the complete set of DVDs and am working my way through. Not sure how I will handle the episode where they kill off Gil.
Watching series again from adult perspective confirms what I remembered. That they dealt with subjects not often dealt with in TV westerns. Like drug addiction (Top of the World with Robert Culp) and respect for Native Americans.
“Let’s head ’em up and move ’em out!”
The Rawhide series killed off Gil Favor? When?
The last episode Eric Fleming appeared on aired May 21, 1965 – episode 202. Article explaining why he was fired – https://www.tvguide.com/news/used-watch-rawhide-66282/
My mistake. I had heard that when they wrote out Gil they drowned him during a cattle crossing. I remember thinking “how ironic” in view of his real death. However I have since seen all episodes and he simply is there and then he is not with no explanation. Believe me, I watched the remaining episodes just as a matter of curiosity without Gil.
Is there any information on the black and white silhouettes of Eric, Rowdy, and Wishbone driving the chuck wagon during the opening of the 7th season? I would love to buy copies for my wall.
Great minds think alike! Watching Rawhide again for the first time since childhood on FETV.
And the live action transforming into sculptures mesmerize me — I rewatched the intro numerous times. Thanks for writing about it. Coolest opening credits ever.
I have noticed FETV is skipping a lot of episodes. They are on the second run now and are doing it again. I wonder why. And those sculptures should end up in a Western museum like the Gilcrease.
Hi Glenn – I have noticed this with other shows, like Andy Griffith. I suspect these TV stations only get access to limited episodes. As for the wonderful sculptures, I suggest reading my follow-up blog: http://www.consumergrouch.com/?p=8492
I watch Rawhide on Pluto TV and they only show maybe four or five episodes of season 2. I have only seen the episode with Frankie Laine once and the one with Robert Culp once. I emailed Pluto TV and asked them why they don’t show the entire season two, but I really didn’t get a good answer. Anyway, I absolutely love the show – it has become my favorite Western.