Hank Worden (born Norton Earl Worden; July 23, 1901 – December 6, 1992) was an American cowboy-turned-character actor who appeared in many Westerns, including a dozen John Ford films, such as The Searchers, and the TV series The Lone Ranger.
Biography
Worden was born in Rolfe, Iowa,[1] and raised on a cattle ranch near Glendive. He was educated as an engineer at Stanford University and the University of Nevada He enlisted in the U.S. Army hoping to become an Army Air Force aviator but failed to pass flight school. An expert horseman, he toured the country in rodeos as a saddle bronc rider. During one ride his horse landed atop him and fractured his neck, but aside from a temporary soreness, Worden did not know the severity of the damage until x-rayed 20 years later.[citation needed] While participating in a rodeo at Madison Square Garden in New York, he and fellow cowboy Tex Ritter were chosen to appear in the Broadway play Green Grow the Lilacs (1931).[2] Following the run of the play, Worden drove a cab in New York City, and then worked on dude ranches as a wrangler and as a guide on the Bright Angel trail of the Grand Canyon.
A chance encounter with actress Billie Burke at a dude ranch led her to recommend him to several film producers. Worden made his film debut as an extra in Cecil B. DeMille's The Plainsman (though a few later films were released prior to The Plainsman). By this time, Tex Ritter had become a star, and Worden played sidekick roles in a number of Ritter's Westerns. In several of his early appearances, Worden was billed as "Heber Snow", until he reverted to his real name. A small part in Howard Hawks's Come and Get It led to a number of later appearances for that director, who also recommended him to director John Ford.
Worden eventually became a member of the John Ford Stock Company, and was directed by Ford twelve times in films and television. The connection with Ford led to an association with actor John Wayne, and Worden appeared in 17 of Wayne's films. Foremost among his collaborations with Wayne and Ford in The Searchers, the 1956 classic Western in which Worden portrayed his most memorable role, that of "Mose Harper," the Shakespearean fool who only longed for "a roof over [his] head and a rocking chair by the fire."
Worden's best performances were given for demanding directors. He had a striking appearance: tall, thin, bald, his voice and mannerisms unforgettable to anyone who saw him. He worked steadily in television as well as films, appeared in six episodes of the TV series The Lone Ranger, long outliving Hawks, Ford and Wayne, and achieved some late notice as a senile hotel waiter in David Lynch's Twin Peaks TV series.
In 1992, Worden hosted and co-produced with director Clyde Lucas an independent special shown on the Nostalgia Channel and some PBS stations entitled Thank Ya, Thank Ya Kindly. The special looked back on Worden's career and featured guests Clint Eastwood, Paul Hogan, Harry Carey Jr., Ben Johnson, Frankie Avalon, Burt Kennedy and stuntman Dean Smith.
Widowed by his wife of 37 years, the former Emma Louise Eaton, in 1977, he later shared his house for several years with actor Jim Beaver. He died while taking a nap at his home in Los Angeles on December 6, 1992, aged 91.[3] He was survived by his daughter, Dawn Henry, whom he and his wife had adopted as an adult.
Selected filmography
John Wayne films
Stagecoach (1939) as Cavalryman extra (uncredited)
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