HAPPY TRAILS

 played everything from a rebellious Roman gladiator () to a fearless Greek adventurer () during a movie career that spanned seven decades. But for readers, he will likely be best remembered for his frequent appearances in world-class westerns, including John Sturges’ 1957 (which cast him as a fatalistic Doc Holliday opposite close friend and frequent costar Burt Lancaster as Wyatt Earp), Burt Kennedy’s 1967 (which teamed him with John Wayne), Andrew V. McLaglen’s 1967 (also starring Robert Mitchum and Richard Widmark), Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s 1970 (a darkly comical and bitingly cynical western costarring Henry Fonda and Warren Oates), (featuring Douglas and Johnny Cash as fading gunslingers). Douglas also served as director and star of (1973), a spirited attempt to transplant the plot of to the Wild West, with Douglas playing the equivalent of Long John Silver; and (1975), a cult-favorite revisionist western with Douglas as a politically ambitious lawman who leads a “super posse” in pursuit of Bruce Dern’s conniving outlaw. Douglas was 103 when he died February 5 in Beverly Hills, California.