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The Left Handed Gun from 1958 cast Paul Newman (Road To Perdition) in the lead, and while he received good reviews for his work, he was considered too old at 33 to convincingly play the role

The Left Handed Gun is a Western that cast a then 33-year-old Paul Newman as real-life outlaw Billy The Kid. The short life and death of Billy The Kid -AKA William H. Bonney – has long been fodder for Hollywood interpretations, with the first silent movie version arriving back in 1911. One of the most famous takes on the story is Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid from director Sam Peckinpah (The Wild Bunch). The film told the story of Billy’s complicated friendship with Pat Garrett – the man who eventually killed him. The movie starred James Coburn as Garrett and Kris Kristofferson as Billy. Bob Dylan also starred and he recorded his iconic song “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” for the film.

Young Guns from 1988 featured a cast made up of prominent Brat Packers – including Kiefer Sutherland (24), Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez – and told the early days of Billy The Kid. While the film took a lot of liberties with the real story, it proved to be a surprise hit. This led to Young Guns II, which again retold the story of Billy’s conflict with former friend Garrett, though the movie explores the theory Billy’s death was faked and he lived to old age. The most recent film to explore the topic was The Kid, starring Ethan Hawke (The Purge) and Dane DeHaan as Billy.

Billy The Kid lived to the age of 21, but a recurring theme of films about his life is the actor playing him is typically in their 30s. Dane DeHaan was 31 while Kris Kristofferson was 36. The Left Handed Gun from 1958 cast Paul Newman (Road To Perdition) in the lead, and while he received good reviews for his work, he was considered too old at 33 to convincingly play the role. The Left Handed Gun was based off a 1955 episode of series The Philco Television Playhouse called “The Death Of Billy The Kid,” where Newman also played the lead. Original screenwriter Gore Vidal felt the script was one of the best he’d ever written and adapted it for The Left Handed Gun – and was later angered when it was extensively reworked.

The Left Handed Gun marked the directorial debut of Arthur Penn, who later helmed the famous 1968 version of Bonnie And Clyde starring Warren Beatty (Dick Tracy) and Faye Dunaway. James Dean was originally cast as Billy, but following his death in a tragic car accident, Newman stepped into the part. The title is part of a major misconception about Billy The Kid, with a vintage photo appearing to depict him as left-handed. In the 1980s it was revealed this picture was flipped and Billy was really right-handed.
The Left Handed Gun is a little messy and the acting is somewhat broad, but it’s also a unique take on Billy The Kid’s life. Newman gamely commits and the story explores Billy’s complicated psychology. The film proved to be a flop in the U.S., though it was praised by overseas critics for its unconventional style. Penn wasn’t pleased with the final version, with the studio taking the movie away from him and recutting it against his wishes. Vidal was deeply unhappy with the project too, and 40 years later mounted a TV remake of his original script starring Val Kilmer (Top Gun) – then 30 years old – as Billy The Kid.
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JEFF BRIDGES: I was kind of surrendering to the idea that I might die,” Bridges said of his illnesses


JEFF BRIDGES REFLECTS ON CANCER DIAGNOSIS: ‘CAME PRETTY CLOSE TO DYING’

Over three years after his lymphoma diagnosis, Jeff Bridges reflected on a harrowing set of circumstances that left him on death’s door.

“It’s amazing the way the mind can forget all that stuff,” the 74-year-old actor told Page Six. “I don’t think too much about the past.”

Bridges revealed that during one of his bouts of chemo, he ended up contracting COVID, leaving him hospitalized for five months with extreme pain and very little hope.
“I was pretty close to dying. The doctors kept telling me, ‘Jeff, you’ve got to fight. You’re not fighting,’” he told People in May 2022. “I was in surrender mode. I was ready to go. I was dancing with my mortality.”
“I had no defenses,” he added. “That’s what chemo does—it strips you of all your immune system. I had nothing to fight it. COVID made my cancer look like nothing.”
Thankfully, the chemo session before contracting COVID was his last one, and he was able to go into remission while beginning this new fight. This allowed his body to fully focus on recovering, and with help from a procedure that used blood from other patients who had already beaten the disease, Bridges was finally able to make progress.
Over three years later, the actor is now “feeling” great and fully back into the swing of things, returning to film his upcoming show THE OLD MAN. It was while he was filming this show originally that he discovered he had lymphoma.
“I was doing those fight scenes for the first episode of THE OLD MAN and didn’t know that I had a 9-by-12-inch tumor in my body,” he told AARP Magazine. “You’d think that would have hurt or something, when they were punching me and stuff. It didn’t.”
Jeff Bridges recently walked the red carpet for the premier of his FX show THE OLD MAN, and fans were overjoyed to see the actor back after a series of health struggles.
While filming the show, doctors diagnosed Bridges with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The actor underwent chemotherapy, and during treatment, contracted COVID-19.
“I was kind of surrendering to the idea that I might die,” Bridges said of his illnesses. “That this might be the end of the race kind of thing, because that’s what’s going to happen to all of us at some point and maybe this was my time to go through that and I didn’t know.”
However, Bridges began to recover. The TRUE GRIT actor said that he realized that he still wanted to fight to stay alive.

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Alba will star in the lead role of Parker, who is the Special Forces commando


Netflix, Jessica Alba Team Up For Her First Movie In Five Years

Jessica Alba is coming to Netflix five years after her last feature film.

The streamer announced in a post on X this week that Alba will star in the Netflix original film Trigger Warning, which will debut on June 21.

The official description of Trigger Warning is as follows: “When a skilled Special Forces commando returns home to take over her family’s bar, she soon finds herself at odds with a violent gang running rampant in her hometown.”
Alba will star in the lead role of Parker, who is the Special Forces commando. Netflix also announced that Mark Webber, Tone Bell, Jake Weary, Gabriel Basso and Anthony Michael Hall are also starring in the film.
Trigger Warning is directed by Mouly Surya.
Alba’s last film appearance came in the 2019 crime mystery Killers Anonymous, which also starred Tommy Flanagan, Gary Oldman and Suki Waterhouse.
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Yellowstone’s Kelly Reilly may have won herself a global fanbase as Beth Dutton but not everyone may realise this isn’t actually her real name


Yellowstone’s Kelly Reilly may have won herself a global fanbase as Beth Dutton but not everyone may realise this isn’t actually her real name.

Yellowstone star Kelly Reilly, unlike her counterpart Beth Dutton, shies away from the spotlight, keeping details about her personal life under wraps, including her name.

Beth Dutton is the violent, foul-mouthed, feisty only sister of the Dutton family in the Western Paramount Network drama who certainly is one to fear.

Nevertheless, she has shown her soft side with her desire to protect her dad John Dutton (played by Kevin Costner) at all costs, as well as express her love for Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser).
Fans have loved watching Beth’s development since the show launched in 2018, although Reilly did have a number of other starring roles before its existence.
Some of which included True Detective, Flight, Sherlock Holmes and various appearances in theatrical productions, one of which she received a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for.
Despite all of this fame and success, some fans may be surprised to learn that Kelly Reilly isn’t actually the actress’ real name.
Yellowstone actress Kelly Reilly is actually called Jessica Kelly Siobhan Reilly but chooses to go by one of her middle names, rather than her first.
It isn’t known why she was named Jessica but with Irish grandparents, her other middle name Siobhan is thought to have been passed down to her.
The star’s mum was a hospital receptionist, her dad Jack Reilly a police officer and her older brother Neil works as a professional golfer.
It’s quite common practice for celebrities to use their middle names for their stage name.
Other famous faces who have done this are Reese Witherspoon, Brad Pitt, Rihanna, Dakota Fanning and Ashton Kutcher.
But she is believed to be the only member of the Yellowstone cast to do this.
Unfortunately for fans of the award-winning drama, the number of Beth scenes to come is few and far between.
Yellowstone was cancelled last year with the network announcing that season five would be its last.PROC. BY MOVIES

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