SLOW DEATH
ONLY QUENTIN TARANTINO WOULD MODEL A MAJOR character on Ty Hardin: a prototypical square-jawed, barely mid-level actor who went from minor TV cowboy heartthrob to unimpressive movie roles to flat-out obsolescence in the span of a decade. An inspiration for DiCaprio’s Rick Dalton in Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (though Dalton’s fate doesn’t seem anywhere near as clear-cut), Hardin’s career carried the emblematic shape of every almost-famous hotshot who imagined they were one break away from following Steve McQueen or Clint Eastwood into the Big Leagues.
He’d arrived in the hurly-burly stampede of westerns that overran American television from the late ’50s through the early ’60s. Despite having the given name of, Hardin was brought in as his potential replacement, and then the character was spun off into the series when Walker settled.
