 | Unkempt, rough and tough looking members of the gang, or lynch mob, or vigilantes, or posse riders, or cow herders. They had minimal or no dialog, not much screen time, and were generally not listed in the film credits. Some would show up as a face in the crowd, portraying townspeople, barflies, deputies, wagon drivers, ranch hands, etc. We tend to recognize some of their faces, but have no clue as to their real names. |
 1931  1949 |  | Bob Card Full name: Robert Austin Card 1887 - 1970 He appeared in at least 105 westerns and 9 serials, and his film career ran from about 1930 through the mid 1940s. |
| Bob Card was born in Shell Rock, Iowa in 1887 and his early years included jobs as a barber and auto mechanic and serving in the Army during World War I.
His film career ran from about 1930 through the mid 1940s, and he did mostly uncredited roles as a lawman, barfly, townsman ... and sometimes played a member of the gang or posse. Occasionally, Card did a musical role. Les Adams has him identified in about 115 sound films - that number includes 105 westerns and 9 cliffhangers. He exited the movie business circa 1945 or so. I've yet to uncover anything about his life and career during the period from 1945 through his passing in 1970.
The Family Search website (free), Ancestry.com (subscription), Fold3 Military records (subscription), Newspaper Archive (subscription), California Death Index, and the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) have info on Bob Card:
Find A Grave website has Robert A. Card interred at Valhalla Memorial Park, North Hollywood, Los Angeles County, California. His marker reads: Robert A. Card, Iowa, Sgt U S Army, World War I, May 4, 1887 - April 7, 1970: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/174782159/robert-austin-card |
 (Courtesy of Les Adams) Above from L-to-R in the front are Fred Burns, Maude Eburne, Carol Hughes and Hal Taliaferro. L-to-R on horseback are Bob Card, Ted Mapes and Jack Montgomery. Crop from a lobby card from the Roy Rogers starrer, THE BORDER LEGION (Republic, 1940).  (Courtesy of Les Adams) Above from L-to-R are Chick Hannan/Hannon, Hank Worden, Lew Morphy, Bob Baker, Wally West and Bob Card in THE SINGING OUTLAW (Universal, 1938). That's Herman Hack in the back row center with his hand in the air. High in the upper right corner is Art Mix (George Kesterson).  (Courtesy of Bruce Hickey ) L-to-R are Bob Card, Forrest Taylor, Slim Andrews, Tex Ritter and Fred Burns in a lobby card from Ritter's RIDIN' THE CHEROKEE TRAIL (Monogram, 1941). Card had a credited role as a Texas Ranger.  (Courtesy of Dorothy Hack) Members of the Santa Monica Mounted Police unit circa 1939-1940. The men in the photo include three western film veterans - from L-to-R are unidentified, Bob Card (with sergeant stripes), Ralph 'Buck' Bucko, unidentified, unidentified, and Herman Hack. |
Bill Patton Full name: William B. or William P. Patton 1894 - 1951 In the sound era, he appeared in at least 73 westerns and 4 serials, and his film career ran from about 1917 through the mid 1940s. | ||
 | | Left is Bill Patton clean shaven and wearing his trademark hat. Below with his mustache. Both images are circa 1935.  |
 (Courtesy of Ed Phillips) Above is Bill Patton - and the shirt matches the one he wears in his only talkie starring role, the poverty row ARIZONA TRAILS (Art Mix Prod./Superior, 1935) churned out by Victor Adamson, AKA Art Mix, AKA Denver Dixon. |
| In silents, the major western stars included William S. Hart, Tom Mix, and a few others. There were also a bunch of minor sagebrush heroes such as Buddy Roosevelt, Bob Custer, Buffalo Bill Jr. ... and Bill Patton.
Born in Texas in 1894, Patton may have been a rodeo performer. And his earliest film jobs were riding and stunts circa 1917 - 1920 at Triangle, Fox, Paramount, others. A few years later, he was starring in low budget oaters. 1927 tradezines reported that he was performing stuntwork and suffered broken ribs and a dislocated back when thrown under a buckboard during the filming of THE WINNING OF BARBARA WORTH (Samuel Goldwyn / United Artists, 1926). His hero days were over when talkies arrived, and Patton wound up doing mostly uncredited roles as a henchman, lawman, etc. in B westerns through the mid 1940s. He can be spotted in sound films starring Ken Maynard, Buck Jones, Tim McCoy, the Three Mesquiteers, Gene Autry, more. Patton also shows up in Poverty Row oaters with Reb Russell, Wally Wales, Lane Chandler, others. He did have the lead in one sound western, ARIZONA TRAILS (Art Mix Prod./Superior, 1935) for Victor Adamson/Denver Dixon. Recently, TRAILS became available on DVD and we can confirm that Patton should have said "NO!" to doing this. He was also in the cast of a couple other Adamson/Dixon productions: DESERT MESA (Art Mix Prod./Security, 1935) and THE RAWHIDE TERROR (Art Mix Prod./Security, 1934). Les Adams has him identified in about 80 sound films - that number includes 73 westerns and 4 cliffhangers. Prior to films, Patton was a rodeo performer. "Champion Rodeo Performers Seen In Screen Drama" was the headline of a 1931 newspaper article about Richard Dix's CIMARRON western for RKO. Among the names in the article: "... Bill Patton, former western star, who won the world's broncho busting championship at Brownsville, Texas, in 1911; Denver, 1916; and Miles City in 1916." In later life, Bill Patton suffered from heart problems and lived for two+ years at the Clear View Sanitarium, Gardena, California. 57 year old William P. Patton passed away there on December 12, 1951.
The Family Search website (free), Ancestry.com (subscription), ProQuest obituaries, the death certificate, and the California Death Index have info on on Bill Patton:
The Google Newspaper archive has the Jimmie Fidler "Hollywood Shots" syndicated column in the a June 21, 1937 Reading (Pennsylvania) Eagle paper. Patton discusses the broken back he suffered ten years earlier which nearly ended his career ... and his current life as a "working extra": http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=x-QxAAAAIBAJ&sjid=heIFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4273,4709924&dq=bill-patton+actor&hl=en
YouTube and the Internet Archive have the (terrible) THE RAWHIDE TERROR which you can view or download: The Internet Archive has ARIZONA TRAILS (Art Mix Prod./Superior, 1935) which features Bill Patton as the hero (with lots of eye makeup). Produced, directed, etc. by Denver Dixon / Victor Adamson and Dixon also plays Patton's sidekick: https://archive.org/details/ArizonaTrails |
 (Courtesy of Les Adams) Above is a photo of the title lobby card for THE RAWHIDE TERROR (Security, 1934). Note the "Victor Adamson Presents an Art Mix Production", and a photo of Adamson/Dixon is shown in the upper left. Edmund Cobb (shown center) was kinda the star, even though he's listed second below William (Bill) Desmond. Also acting as the hero was George Kesterson/Art Mix but he kinda disappears. Bill Patton (moustached, wearing dark shirt, gloves, jacket) is to the left of heroine Frances Morris. In the upper right is William Barrymore (Boris Bullock) as the "Rawhide Terror". Scuttlebutt was that THE RAWHIDE TERROR was originally planned as a serial, but never came to fruition. Thus, when Victor Adamson/Denver Dixon slapped this together as a feature, continuity and logic were lost.  (From Old Corral collection) Above from L-to-R are Chester Gan, Bill Patton, Charles 'Slim' Whitaker, Lucille Lund, and the bare-chested Reb Russell in FIGHTING THROUGH (Willis Kent, 1934). Lucille Lund also attended Northwestern University at the same time that Russell was there. |
Although some of the data is incomplete or inaccurate, the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) has information on Bob Card: