''Custer'', also known as ''The Legend of Custer'', is a 17-episode
military
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
-
western
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that id ...
television series
A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed be ...
which ran on ABC from September 6 to December 27, 1967, with
Wayne Maunder
Wayne Ernest Maunder (December 19, 1937 – November 11, 2018) was a Canadian-born American actor who starred in three American television series between 1967 and 1974.
Three television series
From September 6 to December 27, 1967, Maunder star ...
in the starring role of then
Lieutenant Colonel
Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colon ...
George Armstrong Custer
George Armstrong Custer (December 5, 1839 – June 25, 1876) was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the American Indian Wars.
Custer graduated from West Point in 1861 at the bottom of his class, b ...
. Criticizing the series as "glamorizing Custer," a concerted protest headed by the
Tribal Indians Land Rights Association
The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to conf ...
Alex McNeil, ''Total Television'', New York: Penguin Books, 1996, 4th ed., p. 190
Robert F. Simon
Robert Frank Simon (December 2, 1908 – November 29, 1992) was an American character actor.
Earlier years
Simon began acting with Mansfield's Community Players organization when he worked as a clerk in a meat market. Following that experience ...
played Custer's commanding officer, U.S.
General
A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry.
In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". O ...
Alfred H. Terry
Alfred Howe Terry (November 10, 1827 – December 16, 1890) was a Union general in the American Civil War and the military commander of the Dakota Territory from 1866 to 1869, and again from 1872 to 1886. In 1865, Terry led Union troops to vi ...
California Joe Milner
Moses Embree Milner (May 8, 1829 – October 29, 1876), also known as "California Joe", was an American miner and frontier scout.
Biography
Moses Embree Milner was born in Stanford, Kentucky on May 8, 1829. At age 14 he moved west to St. Louis, ...
Crazy Horse
Crazy Horse ( lkt, Tȟašúŋke Witkó, italic=no, , ; 1840 – September 5, 1877) was a Lakota war leader of the Oglala band in the 19th century. He took up arms against the United States federal government to fight against encroachment by w ...
. Peter Palmer played Sergeant James Bustard, a former Confederate soldier. Grant Woods appeared as Captain Myles Keogh.
Read Morgan
Read Lawrence Morgan (January 30, 1931 – April 20, 2022) was an American film and television actor. He was known for playing the role of Sergeant Hapgood Tasker in the American western television series ''The Deputy''.
Life and career
Morg ...
appeared in the episode "Spirit Woman" in the role of a
medicine man
A medicine man or medicine woman is a traditional healer and spiritual leader who serves a community of Indigenous people of the Americas. Individual cultures have their own names, in their respective languages, for spiritual healers and cerem ...
.
Guest stars included
Lloyd Bochner
Lloyd Wolfe Bochner (July 29, 1924 – October 29, 2005) was a Canadian actor. He appeared in many Canadian and Hollywood productions between the 1950s and 1990s, including the films ''Point Blank'' (1967), '' The Detective'' (1968), '' The ...
(as James Stanhope),
Rory Calhoun
Rory Calhoun (born Francis Timothy McCown, August 8, 1922April 28, 1999) was an American film and television actor. He starred in numerous Westerns in the 1950s and 1960s, and appeared in supporting roles in films such as ''How to Marry a Millio ...
(as Zebediah Jackson),
Philip Carey
Philip Carey (born Eugene Joseph Carey, July 15, 1925February 6, 2009) was an American actor.
Early life and education
On July 15, 1925, Carey was born in Hackensack, New Jersey.James Daly (as John Rudford),
Alexander Davion
Alexander Davion, (March 31, 1929 - September 28, 2019) French-born British actor. He was perhaps best known in the UK for his starring role in ''Gideon's Way'' as Detective Chief Inspector David Keen. He was born in Paris, France. He died in Lon ...
(as Capt. Marcus A. Reno),
Burr DeBenning
Burris Franklin DeBenning (September 21, 1936 – May 26, 2003) was an American character actor who worked in both film and television.
Early years
The son of Mr. and Mrs. M.J. DeBenning, he was born in Seminole, Oklahoma, and grew up in Stil ...
(as Uvalde),
Yvonne De Carlo
Margaret Yvonne Middleton (September 1, 1922January 8, 2007), known professionally as Yvonne De Carlo, was a Canadian-American actress, dancer and singer. She became a Hollywood film star in the 1940s and 1950s, made several recordings, and later ...
Arthur Franz
Arthur Sofield Franz (February 29, 1920 – June 17, 2006) was an American actor whose most notable feature film role was as Lieutenant, Junior Grade, H. Paynter Jr. in ''The Caine Mutiny'' (1954).
Early life
Franz was born in Perth Amboy, ...
(as Grey Fox and Bledsoe), Billy Gray (as Billy Nixon),
Barbara Hale
Barbara Hale (April 18, 1922 – January 26, 2017) was an American actress who portrayed legal secretary Della Street in the dramatic television series '' Perry Mason'' (1957–1966), earning her a 1959 Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting A ...
Robert Loggia
Salvatore "Robert" Loggia ( , ; January 3, 1930 – December 4, 2015) was an American actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for '' Jagged Edge'' (1985) and won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor for ...
(as Lt. Carlos Moreno),
Darren McGavin
Darren is a masculine given name of uncertain etymological origins. Some theories state that it originated from an Anglicisation of the Irish first name Darragh or Dáire, meaning "Oak Tree". According to other sources, it is thought to come from ...
Agnes Moorehead
Agnes Robertson Moorehead (December 6, 1900April 30, 1974) was an American actress. In a career spanning four decades, her credits included work in radio, stage, film, and television.Obituary ''Variety'', May 8, 1974, page 286. Moorehead was th ...
Larry Pennell
Lawrence Kenneth "Larry" Pennell (February 21, 1928 – August 28, 2013) was an American television and film actor, often remembered for his role as "Dash Riprock" in the television series ''The Beverly Hillbillies''. His career spanned ha ...
(as Chief Yellow Hawk), Paul Petersen (as Lieutenant Cox),
Donnelly Rhodes
Henry Donnelly Rhodes (December 4, 1937 – January 8, 2018) was a Canadian actor, known professionally as Donnelly Rhodes. He had many American television and film credits, probably best known to American audiences as the hapless escaped convic ...
Ned Romero
Ned Romero (December 4, 1926 – November 4, 2017) was an American actor and opera singer who appeared in television and film.
Early childhood and education
Romero was born on December 4, 1926 in Franklin, Louisiana, the seat of St. Mary Pa ...
(as Running Feet),
Barbara Rush
Barbara Rush (born January 4, 1927) is an American actress. In 1954, Rush won the Golden Globe Award as most promising female newcomer for her role in the 1953 American science-fiction film ''It Came from Outer Space''.Warren 1982, pp. 151–63 ...
(as Brigid O'Rourke),
Albert Salmi
Albert Salmi (March 11, 1928 – April 22, 1990) was an American actor of stage, film, and television. Best known for his work as a character actor, he appeared in over 150 film and television productions.
Early life
Salmi was born and raised ...
(as Capt. John Mark Charrington), William Smith (as Chief Tall Knife),
Dub Taylor
Walter Clarence "Dub" Taylor Jr. (February 26, 1907 – October 3, 1994),Dub Taylor, 87, Actor in Westerns, The New York Times, October 5, 1994, Section B, Page 12 was an American character actor who from the 1940s into the 1990s worked extens ...
(as Trader),
Ray Walston
Herman Raymond Walston (November 2, 1914 – January 1, 2001) was an American actor and comedian, well known as the title character on ''My Favorite Martian''. His other major film, television, and stage roles included Luther Billis (''South Paci ...
(as Ned Quimbo),
James Whitmore
James Allen Whitmore Jr. (October 1, 1921 – February 6, 2009) was an American actor. He received numerous accolades, including a Golden Globe Award, a Grammy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Theatre World Award, and a Tony Award, plus two ...
(as Eldo), Terry Wilson (as Brownsmith), and William Windom (as Clark Samson). In the last episode entitled "The Raiders", Custer enlists the aid of
Kiowa
Kiowa () people are a Native American tribe and an indigenous people of the Great Plains of the United States. They migrated southward from western Montana into the Rocky Mountains in Colorado in the 17th and 18th centuries,Pritzker 326 and e ...
Indians to help him to locate the parties responsible for a series of
wagon train
''Wagon Train'' is an American Western series that aired 8 seasons: first on the NBC television network (1957–1962), and then on ABC (1962–1965). ''Wagon Train'' debuted on September 18, 1957, and became number one in the Nielsen ratings ...
raids.
Maunder was twenty-eight when he was cast as the 28-year-old Custer. The show was canceled due to poor reviews and protests by Native American tribes throughout the United States.Brian W. Dippie, ''Custer's Last Stand: The Anatomy of an American Myth''. Lincoln, NE, University of Nebraska Press, 1994
, (p.120)
Two episodes, No. 1 and No. 6, were later combined and released as a feature length film, entitled ''"Crazy Horse and Custer, The Untold Story"''. On June 7, 2016, ''Custer: The Complete Series (Collector's Edition)'' was released on dvd by Shout! Factory.