A seminal figure in the history of the Hollywood Western, Harry Carey doesn't quite have the same iconic value in the popular imagination as another pioneering cowboy star, William S Hart. But this is mostly due to the relative unavailability of Carey's films from his starring heyday, and because, unlike Hart, he later carved a niche as a general purpose character actor, which is largely how later generations knew him. Nonetheless, Carey was something of a legend in his own time, and as both Western hero and a likable, elder statesman figure, he was a key player from the first half century of
