Rex Lease

(Courtesy of Les Adams)

Above from L-to-R are Benny Corbett, Blanche Mehaffey (billed in this film as Janet Morgan), and Lease as the star of THE COWBOY AND THE BANDIT (Weiss/Superior, 1935).

(Courtesy of Les Adams)

Above from L-to-R, are Rex Lease and Frank Hawks in a scene from the cliffhanger, THE MYSTERIOUS PILOT (Columbia, 1938), which starred Hawks.

(Courtesy of Minard Coons)

Above, Lee 'Lone Ranger' Powell and Charles 'Slim' Whitaker are about ready to jump this quartet of no-goods in ROLLING DOWN THE GREAT DIVIDE (PRC, 1942), one of the Frontier Marshals trio series. Unaware of their pending doom, the four baddies are, from L-to-R: Rex Lease, Charlie King, Eddie Dean and Glenn Strange.

(Courtesy of Minard Coons)

Above, during the filming of the Range Busters adventure THE HAUNTED RANCH (Monogram, 1943), Dave Sharpe got the call for WW2 duty. Lease's starring career was well over by this time, but he came in at about the mid-point of this film as the sub for Sharpe. Above from L-to-R are: Bud Osborne, Carl Mathews, Glenn Strange, Budd Buster, Max Terhune and Lease.

(From Old Corral image collection)

Tom London (sans teeth), as the sidekick to Sunset Carson in DAYS OF BUFFALO BILL (Republic, 1946). The body on the floor is Rex Lease.

(Courtesy of Ed Tabor)

The Motion Picture Herald and Boxoffice polls were conducted from about the mid 1930s through the mid 1950s. With a few exceptions, the annual results would list the 'Top Ten' (or 'Top Five') cowboy film stars. In most cases, the winners were what you would expect --- Autry, Rogers, Holt, Starrett, Hoppy, etc. Rex Lease never achieved a ranking in these polls.

Although some of the data is incomplete or inaccurate, the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) has information on Rex Lease: http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0495285/

The Best of Everything: A Joan Crawford Encyclopedia website has a photo of Tim McCoy, Rex Lease and Joan Crawford in LAW OF THE RANGE (MGM, 1928): http://www.joancrawfordbest.com/28lawofrange.htm