50 Fun Facts About The Outlaw Josey Wales

In The Outlaw Josey Wales, what does Clint Eastwood's gunfighter habitually spit on animals and the men he has shot?

Tobacco juice lands on animals and victims alike, a mannerism the film carried over from the novel along with Josey's frontier diction.

In which border state does Josey Wales live when pro-Union raiders murder his wife and son in The Outlaw Josey Wales?

Missouri is home until the raid, after which he rides with pro-Confederate bushwhackers and ends the fighting as a hunted man.

Which Oscar nominee for Little Big Man plays Josey Wales's travelling companion Lone Watie in The Outlaw Josey Wales?

Chief Dan George really was a chief: he led British Columbia's Tsleil-Waututh Nation from 1951 to 1963.

Which weapon does Josey Wales turn on Union troops as they massacre his surrendering comrades in The Outlaw Josey Wales?

A Gatling gun found in the Union camp lets Josey cut down the ambushers and ride off with the wounded Jamie.

Which union passed the Eastwood Rule after the star of The Outlaw Josey Wales had its original filmmaker sacked?

The Directors Guild fined the production a reported $60,000, and its new rule bars an actor or producer from firing a director and taking over the job.

Roger Ebert likened Josey Wales to which earlier Clint Eastwood character, the wanderer of the Dollars Trilogy?

The Man with No Name was Ebert's reference point, but he noted a twist: this loner ends up the leader and father figure of a makeshift family.

After riding alone into a hostile camp in The Outlaw Josey Wales, Josey seals peace by becoming Ten Bears's what?

Blood brother is the bond an impressed Ten Bears offers after Josey rides in to bargain for two captured ranch hands, Travis Cobb and Chato.

Which of Clint Eastwood's children, later a jazz bassist, plays Josey's doomed child in The Outlaw Josey Wales?

Kyle is the boy killed in the opening raid; he later acted beside his father in Honkytonk Man before turning to jazz.

With what does Josey Wales, wounded and out of bullets, finally kill Captain Terrill in The Outlaw Josey Wales?

His enemy's own saber does it: Josey goads the captain into drawing the blade, then grabs the hilt and runs him through.

The Library of Congress selected The Outlaw Josey Wales for which roll of American films judged worth preserving?

National Film Registry status means a film was judged culturally, historically or aesthetically significant; this one made the list in 1996, twenty years after release.

Before Union raiders burn his home in The Outlaw Josey Wales, how does Josey Wales make his living?

Farmer is all he is when the story opens, working his land as the house burns in the distance; the gunfighter comes later.

Lone Watie, the old man who befriends Josey Wales in The Outlaw Josey Wales, belongs to which Native American nation?

Cherokee and a veteran of the losing side, Lone Watie is described as a cousin of Stand Watie, the real Confederate general from that nation.

To which country does Lone Watie urge Josey Wales to flee, following General Jo Shelby, in The Outlaw Josey Wales?

Mexico was a real refuge: in June 1865 Shelby rode south with about 1,000 of his troops rather than surrender.

How is Laura Lee related to Sarah Turner, the widow Josey Wales rescues from raiders in The Outlaw Josey Wales?

Granddaughter and grandmother are rescued together, and Laura Lee later gives Josey a watch chain she braided from her own hair.

What does Fletcher do on finally meeting Josey Wales in the saloon ending of The Outlaw Josey Wales?

Feigns not knowing him: Fletcher lets the lawmen believe the outlaw is dead and says he will keep looking elsewhere, to tell him the war is over.

Which actress began a six-film screen partnership with Clint Eastwood by playing Laura Lee in The Outlaw Josey Wales?

Sondra Locke was cast by Eastwood over the objections of the man first hired to direct, and she already had an Oscar nomination to her credit.

Which director, later of The Right Stuff, was fired from The Outlaw Josey Wales only weeks into the shoot?

Philip Kaufman had also written the script and finished the pre-production, so his star took over a shoot that was already planned in detail.

Which novelist, later exposed as a former Klan organizer, wrote the book behind The Outlaw Josey Wales?

Forrest Carter was the pseudonym of Asa Earl Carter, and it was partly the success of the film that led to his past being uncovered.

Which studio, where Clint Eastwood settled after falling out with Universal, released The Outlaw Josey Wales?

Warner Bros. became Eastwood's home after he grew unhappy with how Universal handled and promoted his films, and he stayed with the studio for decades.

Ten Bears, the war leader who makes peace with Josey Wales in The Outlaw Josey Wales, belongs to which nation?

Comanche leader Ten Bears was a real figure: he headed the Yamparika division of that nation from about 1860 until his death in 1872.

The Union irregulars who murder the family of Josey Wales in The Outlaw Josey Wales go by which nickname?

Red Legs is the name given to the renegade band, and Terrill, the man who led the raid, goes on to hunt Josey for the rest of the story.

Which real Confederate guerrilla leader, played by John Russell, does Josey Wales ride with in The Outlaw Josey Wales?

Bloody Bill Anderson was the bushwhacker whose band pulled about two dozen unarmed Union soldiers from a train at Centralia in 1864 and shot them.

How does Josey Wales strand Fletcher and Terrill's posse in the middle of a river in The Outlaw Josey Wales?

Shoots the ferry's ropes: instead of running, he watches from the far bank until his pursuers are midstream, then sends the boat drifting downriver.

What does the travelling salesman who exposes Josey Wales to Union soldiers peddle in The Outlaw Josey Wales?

Medicinal elixir is his trade; having met Josey once on the road, he later recognises the outlaw in a frontier town and shouts for all to hear.

What does Josey Wales send riding into a Union camp as a distraction in The Outlaw Josey Wales?

His dead friend's body draws the soldiers' eyes: young Jamie had died of his wound, and even in death he covers Josey's escape.

In The Outlaw Josey Wales, which skill is the ageing Lone Watie humiliated to find he has lost?

Sneaking up on people is beyond him now, one of the touches Roger Ebert singled out in a performance he called funny and dignified at once.

Josey Wales first visits a trading post in The Outlaw Josey Wales to get Lone Watie what?

A horse is the errand, but he leaves with two, plus a new travelling companion, after shooting the two men who were assaulting her.

What are Fletcher's surrendered guerrillas doing when hidden Union gunners open fire on them in The Outlaw Josey Wales?

Swearing a loyalty oath to the United States, they are cut down by soldiers hidden in tents, despite a senator's promise of amnesty.

Sarah Turner, the talkative widow who joins Josey Wales's band in The Outlaw Josey Wales, hails from which state?

Kansas is where her family set out from; most were wiped out on the trail west, leaving Sarah and one relative to reach the ranch.

The abandoned ranch where the band settles in The Outlaw Josey Wales had belonged to which relative of Sarah Turner?

Her son Tom had died, and two of his old ranch hands, Travis Cobb and Chato, join the newcomers when they move in.

Which actor, Chief Bromden in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, plays Ten Bears in The Outlaw Josey Wales?

Will Sampson was a rodeo bronc rider and painter, spotted on the circuit when the Cuckoo's Nest producers went looking for a very large Native American man.

Which actor, later Dean Wormer in Animal House, plays the reluctant pursuer Fletcher in The Outlaw Josey Wales?

John Vernon had already sparred with Clint Eastwood once, as the by-the-book mayor of San Francisco in the first Dirty Harry film.

Which actor, the menacing mountain man of Deliverance, plays the Union captain Terrill in The Outlaw Josey Wales?

Bill McKinney appeared in seven Clint Eastwood films in all, and Captain Terrill is counted the most notable of them.

Which singer of the 1958 novelty hit The Purple People Eater plays ranch hand Travis Cobb in The Outlaw Josey Wales?

Sheb Wooley is also believed to be the voice behind the Wilhelm scream, the stock yell reused in more than 200 films.

Which actor both directed and took over the role of Josey Wales in the 1986 sequel The Return of Josey Wales?

Michael Parks, once the star of TV's Then Came Bronson, made the sequel from the second novel, The Vengeance Trail of Josey Wales.

Which composer of The Wild Bunch earned The Outlaw Josey Wales an Oscar nomination for its original score?

Jerry Fielding lost the award to Jerry Goldsmith's music for The Omen, and went on to score Escape from Alcatraz for the same star.

Under which new title, shown in the opening credits of The Outlaw Josey Wales, was its source novel republished?

Gone to Texas replaced the original title, The Rebel Outlaw: Josey Wales, when the book was reissued in 1975, the year before the film came out.

The novelist behind The Outlaw Josey Wales had been a speechwriter for which segregationist Southern governor?

George Wallace's most notorious pro-segregation line, delivered in 1963, was co-written by the man who later turned to Western fiction.

Kanab, a town nicknamed Little Hollywood, hosted location filming for The Outlaw Josey Wales in which state?

Utah also supplied the Paria movie set, which fell into disuse after this shoot and was often mistaken by visitors for the real ghost town.

Which filmmaker went on The Merv Griffin Show to praise The Outlaw Josey Wales and its star's work behind the camera?

Orson Welles ranked its star among America's finest behind the camera, and Time magazine named the film one of the year's ten best.

Which production company, named after a creek on Clint Eastwood's California land, made The Outlaw Josey Wales?

Malpaso was set up with profits from the Dollars films, and Josey Wales was the first production on its schedule after a move to The Burbank Studios.

Which rating did The Outlaw Josey Wales carry despite a trade review counting roughly one corpse every 90 seconds?

Rated PG, it stretched credulity for one trade reviewer, who reckoned the deaths came about every 90 seconds across 135 minutes.

Decades later, Clint Eastwood said he saw The Outlaw Josey Wales, a tale of revenge, as what kind of film?

Anti-war is how he described it in 2011, saying he had recognised parallels with his own era: everybody tires of conflict, yet it never ends.

Which film, the first Western Clint Eastwood directed, came three years before The Outlaw Josey Wales?

High Plains Drifter arrived in 1973 with its maker also in the lead, a double duty he repeated on Josey Wales.

Which actor, later the surfer Lance in Apocalypse Now, plays the young guerrilla Jamie in The Outlaw Josey Wales?

Sam Bottoms got his start at 16, when he was visiting the set of The Last Picture Show and Peter Bogdanovich decided to give him a screen test.

Which actor, later Uncle Leo on Seinfeld, has a small role as Abe in The Outlaw Josey Wales?

Len Lesser had already shared a film with Clint Eastwood, the wartime caper Kelly's Heroes, long before his sitcom fame.

Which Navajo actress made her film debut as Little Moonlight in The Outlaw Josey Wales?

Geraldine Keams was raised on the reservation and studied drama and film at the University of Arizona before landing the part.

Which cinematographer, son of a three-time Oscar winner, shot The Outlaw Josey Wales and scouted its locations?

Bruce Surtees rose from camera operator on Coogan's Bluff to shoot a run of films for the same star, among them Play Misty for Me and Sudden Impact.

Which bestselling fake memoir of a Native American boyhood came from the author behind The Outlaw Josey Wales?

The Education of Little Tree was sold as autobiography until its writer's background was widely publicised in 1991, when the publisher reclassified it as fiction.

In which city do the saloon regulars claim five gunmen killed Josey Wales near the end of The Outlaw Josey Wales?

Monterrey is the invented deathbed, and a signed affidavit to that effect is enough to send the lawmen home satisfied.