The cowboy has long occupied a place in American cinema as the amiable and enigmatic hero of the frontier, whose moral code cannot be rattled, and whose sense of justice cannot be shaken. When the Western genre was at its height, cowboys were the superheroes of their day, battling evil and oppression in saloon shootouts and canyon gunfights, often outnumbered but never outgunned.
There are certain traits that cinematic cowboys possess that make them ideal protagonists, like their indefatigable sense of right and wrong, and their willingness to die for their convictions where others will not. They're not always perfect people, but their lives can still take on a mythic quality when they're romanticized and revered like this bunch.
Doc Holliday (Tombstone)
While the focus of the wildly popular Tombstone is certainly the Earp brothers and their participation in the infamous Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, it's Wyatt's closest friend that steals the spotlight in his silk paisley waistcoat, with his mother of pearl pistols and his rakish laissez-faire approach to frontier violence. He presents a specific sort of figure in the West; an effete intellectual in an illiterate world, who fires off witty retorts as easily as a bullet from his six-shooter.
The charisma of Val Kilmer was never put to better use than for the character of Doc Holliday, the gambling gunsel and dandy who lived with tuberculosis for 14 years of his life. In fact, though the movie focuses on the last months of Holliday's legendary career, he is never more lethal and urbane, as though his impending death has freed him from the responsibilities of leading a rigid life.
Sheriff Bullock (Deadwood)
Luckily, the good people at HBO saw fit to bless Western fans with a Deadwood movie so that the quiet fury of Sheriff Bullock could rumble like a thunderstorm rolling across a prairie. As the sheriff-turned-carpenter-turned sheriff again, Bullock struggles to balance his yearning for a quiet life with his insatiable quest for justice in a boomtown of cutthroats, miners, and prostitutes.
Timothy Olyphant has been dubbed the "modern cowboy" for his roles as a Western archetype across many different genres, from TV's Justified to the animated Rango, and even in The Mandalorian as a marshal in the Star Wars universe, but he's at his brooding best dispensing justice in Deadwood, North Dakota.
The Man With No Name (Dollars Trilogy)
In Sergio Leone's Dollars trilogy, one of the most celebrated collections of Western movies ever made, the Man with No Name emerged as an almost mythical figure in Western cinema, a monosyllabic mercenary making his way on the frontier by taking the bloodiest jobs he could and using his wits to achieve the biggest payouts.
Clint Eastwood made a name for himself as an inscrutable cowboy, and he would carry the reputation of the laconic, squinty-eyed gunfighter into several more movies including Pale Rider, Unforgiven, and even his non-Western fare.
Django (Django Unchained)
From being a slave separated from his wife to becoming a formidable gunman striking fear in the hearts of slave owners all across the South, Django's trajectory as a tragic and heroic figure is both poignant and operatic. The scale of his quest is only rivaled by legends like Perseus and Odysseus, which gives his trials a mythological quality perfect for a cowboy's saga.
Jamie Foxx surprised critics by putting on his spurs and stepping into a genre that was unfamiliar territory in his career. No matter the seemingly insurmountable heights of Django's quest, or the bombast of Quentin Tarantino's story, Foxx played the character with precision and seriousness, never treating his performance like a joke or a novelty.
The Lady (The Quick And The Dead)
Sam Raimi's The Quick and the Dead is full of swaggering cowboys looking to make a name for themselves, but one of them in particular fills out a duster and a gunbelt a little differently. Known simply as Ellen or "The Lady", she enters into a quick-draw competition in the hopes of getting close enough to kill the man who murdered her father.
Steely-eyed Sharon Stone proves her mettle — and her metal — up against the likes of Russell Crowe, Lance Henriksen, Leonardo DiCaprio, and the formidable Gene Hackman. As the heroine and lone female gunslinger, she disrupts the cowboy archetype in a glorious subversion of expectations.
The Gunslinger (Westworld)
Westworld is a fascinating amalgamation of futurism, science fiction, horror, and Western nostalgia all focused on one man's desperate fight for survival in a theme park gone wild. Based on Michael Crichton's book of the same name (and the inspiration for both Jurassic Park and a later Westworld television series), the movie explores what happens when the darkest of human impulses are allowed to run rampant.
Visitors to the park can do whatever they like to the impressive androids that populate it, but eventually one in particular decides to fight back: The Gunslinger. Played by Yul Brynner, the indefatigable pursuer is modeled after Brynner's turn as Chris Adams in one of the greatest Westerns of all time, The Magnificent Seven. He's the Terminator and The Man in Black all rolled into one terrifying package.
Ethan Edwards (The Searchers)
When his family gets attacked and his niece kidnapped, Civil War veteran Ethan Edwards mounts of a rescue mission to get her back. Filled with explosive gunfights, staggering scenery, and commanding performances, The Searchers is one of John Ford's Western masterpieces and a sterling example of the genre.
The movie is propelled by John Wayne in one of his best starring roles, which is high praise considering just how many Westerns he starred in over his decades associated with the genre. As Edwards he explores a larger swathe of emotions than in Stagecoach or Red River, and is as commanding and larger-than-life as the craggy cliff-faces he must hug along his journey.
Frank (Once Upon a Time in the West)
Few cinematic villains have had an introduction like Frank, the pale-eyed devil who emerges from the dust after blowing a boy's entire family away. Like Darth Vader striding through a smoke-filled corridor in Star Wars, he is the enigmatic Man in Black rising from the rubble of combat, callous to the chaos he has caused.
Henry Fonda often plays the hero, but in Once Upon a Time in the West he's allowed to dig into the role of the villain, and his crystal blue eyes and handsome features are used almost perversely as he commits irredeemable acts of violence on behalf of a land baron.
Hannie Caulder (Hannie Caulder)
Kill Bill, Raquel Welch plays the title heroine Hannie Caulder who, after being raped and left for dead by her husband's murderers, seeks the help of a bounty hunter to teach her the skills necessary to get her revenge.
Caulder isn't particularly gutsy to start, but her timid and awkward personality hides a fierce and determined spirit that will be tempered into a brave killing machine. She trains religiously and methodically until the moment comes where she must finally face her assailants and her fears down the barrel of a gun and win.
Woody (Toy Story)
Over the last two decades, one cowboy in particular has stuck in the minds of adults and children alike: that lovable, flop-ted cattle-rustler Woody. The hero of the endearing Toy Story franchise, Woody has been a part of the childhood of two generations at this point, proving that the pursuit of justice can go hand in hand with honoring friendships and creating a community built on love, not violence.
Part of Woody's appeal comes from being voiced by Tom Hanks, one of the most affable actors in American cinema, and because of the fact that he embodies a collection of Western idealizations.
