The Legend of Clint Eastwood
Rawhide, 1959-65
What's remembered is the rollin', rollin', rollin' Frankie Laine theme song ("Move 'em on, head 'em up. Count 'em out, ride 'em in, Rawhide!). The show itself, produced by Charles Marquis Warren, who had shepherded Gunsmoke from radio to its 20-year perch on Saturday night TV, starred Eric Fleming as Gil Favor, team boss of a never-ending cattle drive. Eastwood played Rowdy Yates, Gil's second-in-command. Rowdy was young, impetuous and dreamy-looking — an Old-West Ricky Nelson. Richard Schickel's epic Clint Eastwood: A Biography notes that the actor referred to his character as a "trail flunky" and "Rowdy Yates, idiot of the plains." But the show, which ran seven-and-a-half seasons, gave Eastwood a steady job and a marketable face in a series that played around the world. In Rome, Sergio Leone took notice.