Ty Hardin 1930-2017

I was doing it again last night- and this time it was Ty Hardin I was watching- in a clip from the Warner Brothers' production line western series Bronco.

Hardin was a beautiful young man in an Eisenhower era sort of a way that was soon to go out of fashion- which may explain why- although his acting career bumped along for several more decades- his time in the sun was so short. History records that he turned down the lead in a cheap spaghetti western called a Fistful of Dollars. Would he have had Clint's career if he'd taken that gig? Probably not.

Bronco wasn't great art and Hardin wasn't that good an actor- but for my generation of little boys approaching adolescence in and around 1960- he and the other TV cowboys were the ones we looked to for information on how grown men were supposed to comport themselves. They were all good looking- but Hardin was the good-lookingest- which is why we nick-named a handsome French master Bronco- and not Rowdy or Wyatt or Maverick or one of the many other options.

I can still hum the theme tune. I even know the words...