Rex Lease

(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 Marshal trio series. Unaware of their pending doom, the four baddies are, from left to right: Rex Lease, Charlie King, Eddie Dean and Glenn Strange.

Note the lineup as being shortest to tallest - and check the height of Glenn Strange vs. Lease. Strange's World War II draft registration lists him as 6 feet, 3 inches in height and 205 pounds. The biographies on Lease (from several Blue Books and Motion Picture Almanacs) mention his height as 5 feet, 10 inches (which is probably a bit optimistic).

(Courtesy of Les Adams)

Above is a lobby card from the Bob Steele BILLY THE KID IN SANTA FE (PRC, 1941). In that film, Lease got the call to play Steele's helper Jeff (instead of Carleton Young), and Rex is pictured wearing the light colored shirt and dark hat in the bottom right and upper left. Steele has a headlock on baddie Dave O'Brien.

(Courtesy of Minard Coons)

During the filming of the Range Busters adventure THE HAUNTED RANCH (Monogram, 1943), actor and stuntman Dave Sharpe got the call for World War II duty. Lease's starring career was well over by this time, but he joined at about the mid-point of this film as the sub for Sharpe. Above from left to right are Bud Osborne, Carl Mathews, Glenn Strange, Budd Buster, Max Terhune and Lease.

(Courtesy of Minard Coons)

Above from L-to-R are Rex Lease, Fred 'Snowflake' Toones, Julie Duncan, John 'Dusty' King, and Max Terhune in another scene from HAUNTED RANCH (Monogram, 1943). Lease was about forty years old and you can see his expanding waistline.

(Courtesy of Les Adams)

Above from left to right are Jess Cavin, Rex Lease, Pascale Perry, Earle Hodgins and Bob Wilke in a crop from a lobby card from FIREBRANDS OF ARIZONA (Republic, 1944), one of the early Sunset Carson series in which Smiley Burnette was given top billing.

(From Old Corral image collection)

Above are Tom London (sans teeth) and Sunset Carson in a lobby card from Sunset's DAYS OF BUFFALO BILL (Republic, 1946). The body on the floor is Rex Lease who was one of the crooks out to steal the ranch belonging to heroine Peggy Stewart.