Zane Grey
Date of Birth: 31 Jan 1872
Country: USA
Biography: An American author best known for his popular adventure novels and stories that were a basis for the Western genre in literature and the arts; he idealized the American frontier. Riders of the Purple Sage (1912) was his best-selling book. In addition to the commercial success of his printed works, they had second lives and continuing influence when adapted as films and television productions. As of 2012, 112 films, two television episodes, and a television series, Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater
Total Credits at Criticker: 2 (Actor), 59 (Writer)
Biography and picture submitted by Dunstan-xxx
Find more information about Zane Grey at The Internet Movie Database
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Vance Shaw gives up outlawing and goes to work for the telegraph company; his brother Jack Slade leads outlaws trying to prevent the company connecting the line between Omaha and Salt Lake City. (imdb)
Can Wayne prove he is responsible as to win the heart of Judy and outwit the saloon owner? (imdb)
Three veteran scouts, Clint Belmet, Jim Burch and Bill OLeary, are leading a wagon train of settlers to the Oregon Territory. Fearing that an influx of settlers and merchants-to-follow would tear down his empire of fur-trading and exploitation of the Indians, Murdock has his henchmen pose as Indians in an effort to halt the western expansion. (imdb)
A mining engineer teams up with a crusty deputy sheriff to solve the mystery killings at an old mine where the owner's family waits for him to die, and where a valuable radium strike may have been made. (imdb)
In Kentucky just after the Civil War, the Hayden-Colby feud leads to Jed Colby being sent to prison for 15 years for murder. The Haydens head for Nevada and when Colby gets out of prison he heads there also seeking revenge. The head of the Hayden family tries to avoid more killing but the inevitable showdown has to occur, complicated by Lynn Hayden and Ellen Colby's plans to marry. (imdb)
A gunman trying to avoid killing gets caught in the middle of a vicious range war. (TCM.com)
After saving himself from hanging, Laramie Nelson saves Tracks Williams from the same fate. They then travel to Lindsay's ranch where they get jobs. There they run into Adams who they learn is planning to rustle Lindsay's horses. (imdb)
Chet Kasedon is after the Indians hidden gold mine but Chief Moya will not reveal it's location. He has also hired mining engineers Gale and Mortimer to locate the mine. When Gale sees Kasedon's cruelty to Moya, he switches sides. (imdb)
Cowboy pretends to be city dude sent to manage uncle's ranch, when he learns the ranch is being menaced by an outlaw who the cowboy badly wants to catch. (imdb)
An Easterner inherits a cattle ranch, only to discover that thousands of cattle have been stolen. He secretly signs on as a hired hand at his own ranch to discover who's stealing them. (imdb)
A young frontier scout helps guide a freight wagon train across the country, fighting off Indians and evil traders, while his two crusty companions try and save him from falling in love. (imdb)
Just as Nevada wins $7000 in yellowback bills, Ben Ide takes his #7000 in yellowbacks and heads out to buy mining equipment. Burridge has his man Powell Ide and retrieve the money and Nevada finds Ide just as the posse arrives. Found with the money Nevada is arrested and Burridge now gets Powell to incite the local citizens to lynch Nevada. (imdb)
Marvin Hayden returns to find his ranch is about to be sold at auction and the Hayden Jorth feud still going strong. Carson wants the Hayden ranch and tries to kill Hayden. When he fails he kills Chick Jorth with a rock. As Hayden does not carry a gun and the two had argued earlier, Hayden is arrested for the murder. With Hayden in jail, his friends Chito, Ginger, and his Lawyer Gardner now go to work to find the murderer. (imdb)
When the Tonto Rim gang attack Brad's stagecoach, they take the strongbox and kill one of his workers. Learning the gang member Patton is in jail, Brad gets himself thrown in also. Chito helps break him out and he takes Patton with him. Patton leads him to the Tonto Rim hideout, but needing to get to the Sheriff, Brad finds himself a prisoner. (imdb)
Heading west for his health, Colonel Lambeth takes his daughter Rill along. Lost on the desert they are saved by Pecos and Chito. The Colonel hires the two and the Lambeths soon find themselves mixed up in Pecos' trouble. Pecos has killed Sawtelle's brother and Sawtelle as head of the vigilantes is after him. (imdb)
Dave and Chito are working for Melburn who is looking for wild horses. Olmstead has his men looking for then also. When Dave finds them first, Olmstead buys them from Melburn and then kills him. A clue leads Dave to Olmstead's where he breaks in and finds the murder weapon. When he takes his evidence to the Marshal he learns Olmstead has been murdered and he is the one under arrest. (imdb)
A Pinkerton detective goes undercover to infiltrate a gang of thieves whose boss is a feisty lady saloon keeper. Complications ensue. (imdb)
Beasley, who is after Gayner's land, plans to kidnap his daughter. But Dale overhears their plan and kidnaps her himself. When Gayner arrives to retrieve his daughter, Beasley kills him and makes the Sheriff arrest Dale for the murder. (imdb)
History, as portrayed in this film, has been a succession of conquests of stronger races over weaker ones. As played out on the stage of Monument Valley, long ago, tribes of Indians defeated the ancient cliff dwellers; then came the Europeans to conquer the Indians. Now, in the early 20th Century, a tribe of Navajo live on a reservation overseen by an Indian-hating agent, Booker. He and his men steal the best Indian horses for their own profit. (imdb)
Riders of the Purple Sage (1996) - TV Movie
Jim Lassiter roams from town to town in search for the man who drove his sister to suicide. While riding toward a mountain pass, he sees an heiress, Jane Withersteen, being harassed by thugs and steps in to help. A religious sect wants Jane to marry their leader, Deacon Tull, so they can gain ownership of her land. When he steps in to help, Lassister slowly begins to believe that a member of this sect is the man he is looking for. (imdb)
Running from the law, Jim Hall joins Hays' gang. Hays is foreman on the Herrick ranch and plans to rustle Herrick's cattle. Attracted to Herrick's sister Helen, Jim decides to tell the Sheriff about the raid. But when his plan is overheard he is made a prisoner. (imdb)
A rancher having 6000 head of cattle to get to market hires two gangs that hate each other. He figures each gang will not let the other rustle the cattle. Tex arrives looking for the man that killed his wife and took his horses. Finding his horses he joins the gang that are now riding them. Caught in the battle between the gangs when one double-crosses the other, he now finds the man he is looking for. (imdb)
Gold prospector O'Brien stakes a claim but is cheated by a saloonkeepr. He plots revenge. (imdb)
A wagon train is robbed by a gang of bandits who kill everyone but a pair of young brothers. Years later, the brothers join force to bring the bandits' leader to justice. (imdb)
Marion Warner inherits a piece of land in the New Mexico desert and arrives to determine her best course of action with the property. She is initially determined to have the Navaho Indians who are living on the land run off, but encounters stiff resistance from local high-roller Morgan and his toady Blucher. Marion meets Morgan's enemy, Blandy, a Navaho with an education and a sophisticated outlook. (imdb)
Both Sprague and Jett and their crews are hunting buffalo. Doan is with Sprague and is looking for the Jett outfit where his girlfriend Milly is being held against her will. In addition to the thieving Jett who is stealing Sprague's furs, the Indians are gathering to attack all the white buffalo hunters. (imdb)
Nabb controls the pass and lets all the ranchers through except Holderness and his stolen cattle. When Nabb refuses to sell, Holderness works an his son Snap who has run up gambling debts. There is more trouble when Snap becomes jealous of Judy's attraction to the surveyor Jack. When Holderness has Snap killed, everyone heads to town for the showdown. (imdb)
When Sue Bixby becomes his new boss, stagecoach robber Talbot reforms and goes after her rustled cattle. When he and his men are outnumbered fighting Lloyd's gang, Randall rides to get circus man Mahoney and his man shooting cannon. (imdb)
Visiting an old friend, Nevada and sidekick Weary take jobs on a ranch rounding up horses. But the buyer turns out to be Les Setter, a man Nevada earlier caught robbing a bank. Nevada knows Setter is a fake but bides his time waiting for Setter to make his move. Setter knows this and Nevada soon finds himself in jail when Setter frames him for rustling. (imdb)
Under a false name, famed outlaw Pecos Bill gets a job at the Bellounds ranch along with his sidekick Frosty. Bill is actually Ben Wade, former owner of the Bellounds ranch and father of beautiful young Collie, the girl the two ranch foremen are fighting over. Ben works unrecognized, biding his time until he can expose the men who, years before, killed his partner and framed him for the crime, then stole his ranch. (imdb)
Cowhand Jim Cleve is wrongly accused of murder and rescued by Jack Kells, leader of a band of Idaho outlaws known as the Border Legion. But when the Legion takes Joan Randall prisoner and leaves Cleve to guard her, he realizes that he cannot remain part of an outlaw band and decides to rescue Joan. (imdb)
Framed by Major Jenkins, Capt. Travers is kicked out of the Army. When Travers, now living with the Indians, is captured by Jenkins, the Indians attack the fort. With his men greatly outnumbered Colonel Burke realizes that Travers is their only chance. (imdb)
In the battle of San Juan Hill, Rough Rider Dale Brittenham saves the life, at the expense of losing the sight of one eye, of Bob Hildreth. Invalided to a hospital they meet nurse Belle Pearson and a love-feud begins between Dale and Bob over Belle. At the end of the war Dale and Bob return to Halsey, a small mid-western cattle town,where Belle comes as a school teacher, bringing her brother Larry. (imdb)
Lovers David Lunch and Betty Summers are caught in the feud between their two families. When David kills the Summers son, he escapes to the West. He marries and when his boy is two he and his wife are killed by Indians who take the boy. Twenty years later the boy is now the Indian chief. Betty's daughter is nearby and the two are destined to meet. (imdb)
John Abbott returns to the desert land he owns, and after being wounded by hired gunman Chick Chance, he is befriended by rancher Andrew Naab and his son, Marvin. Naab's daughter, Marian, falls in love with John but is about to marry Snap Thornton to keep a promise made by her father. She runs away on her wedding day but is captured and held hostage by outlaw Henry Holderness. John, the Naabs and fellow ranchers rush to her rescue. (imdb)
Two men, Thurman and Beady, and a woman, Georgia, ply a confidence game in Alaska by selling 'salted' gold mines to gullible newcomers. But the cold Far North gets too hot for them and they move to greener pastures in the western United States. Business is good until a young cattleman, Tom Hatfield, falls for their trap. But Georgia falls in love with him and this causes problems for her partners. (imdb)
A friend of Dick Bailey is killed by a mysterious assailant, whom Dick suspects to be Stack, who is in league with the crooked sheriff. Out on a spree Dick swears he will marry the first woman he sees, who happens to be Ruth Hammond, sister of his dead friend, arriving to take charge of the Hammond ranch. Revolted by his rough proposal,she fires him as the Hammond foreman and she proceeds to the ranch.... (imdb)
Nevada is a 1927 movie based upon a Zane Grey novel and starring Gary Cooper, Thelma Todd, and William Powell. This lavish Western film was remade in 1944 as an early Robert Mitchum B-picture, the only time Cooper and Mitchum played the same role. This movie still survives in a complete copy, but the films appearance is not the best, do probably to poor preservation, it's possible to make out scenes, but not as well as other highly restored silent films.
Singing cowboy Randy shows up at Mrs. Blake's ranch. She is beset by bad guys, and Randy loves her daughter Janet. (imdb)
In 1870 Texas, a man comes home to find his father murdered. He trails an outlaw until he discovers he's part of a gang. He calls in the Texas Rangers. (imdb)
After shooting a man in self-defense, Buck Duane finds himself accused of many crimes, none of which he committed. In order to prove his innocence, he joins the Texas Rangers, and also hopes to win the approval and hand of Mary Aldridge, a girl from the East. He is assigned to round up a gang of cattle rustlers who are, unknown by Mary. led by her father. (imdb)
In the film debut for Texas A&M football player John Kimbrough and the third remake of this Zane Grey novel,Major McNeill (William Farnum), of the Texas Rangers, in an effort to break up and stop a gang of cattle rustlers, sends Texas Ranger Buck Duane (John Kimbrough)into Exceter County, Texas to take over. Buck meets Barbara Lonstretch (Sheila Ryan), who has just been robbed by a pair of the outlaws,as she was returning home from the East. (imdb)
Based on a story by Zane Grey, Desert Gold is a remake of the 1919 film of the same name. Neil Hamilton stars as George Thorne, a U.S. cavalry lieutenant in love with fair senorita Mercedes Castaneda (Shirley Mason). When Mercedes is kidnapped by scurrilous outlaw Snake Landree (William Powell in his swarthy-villain period), Lt. Thorne and his Eastern-dude pal Dick Gale (Robert Frazer) gallop to her rescue.
The film is about a rancher whose spread includes the only way out of the valley where an outlaw is hiding a huge herd of stolen cattle. When the outlaw decides to challenge the rancher's claim to the land, the rancher stays one step ahead of him and hires a surveyor to remap and confirm the property lines.
Lassiter's sister was killed and her young daughter taken and raised by outlaws. Years later Lassiter arrives at the Withersteen ranch looking for the now grown daughter. He immediately gets caught up in the ranch's struggle against rustlers. Trailing a rustled herd of horses leads him to the rustler's hideout and the missing daughter. (imdb)
Jim Lacey, better known as "Nevada,", and his pal Cash Burridge are a pair of Nevada wanderers on the run from a sheriff who thinks they have committed some lawless deeds, and they decide Arizona offers them more security.
Chane Weymer, an Arizona rancher goes after a gang that is trapping and catching wild horses by the use of barbed-wire enclosures. He suspects Ward, of being the gang leader but is unable to find the needed proof. Ward also has an eye on the lovely Sandy Melbarne. (imdb)
Lassiter discovers the judge (Barrat) who cheated his neice of her inheritance leads a gang of badguys posing as vigilantes. (imdb)
Desperate for money, a rancher decides to trap and sell wild horses, using barbed wire. The local Navajo tribe tries to persuade him not to do it. (imdb)
The Vanishing Pioneers is a 1928 silent western film directed by John Waters and starring Jack Holt. Holt's son, Tim makes his screen debut in this film The film is now lost. Parts of the film were shot in Zion National Park and Springdale, Utah. (The Movie Database)
After Smoke wins the Blake ranch in a poker game, Blake commits suicide and Smoke deeds the ranch to Blake's young daughter. But the Sheriff is after the ranch and has Smoke arrested for the murder of Blake and then brings in an impostor to pose as the girl's relative.
The kidnapping of an heir to a ranch goes awry when the Man of the Forest, mistrusted by the heiress, takes matters into his own hands with the help of his pet cougar. (imdb)
A young outlaw gets involved with a gang of crooks. When he tells them he is breaking away, they threaten to pin a false murder charge on him. But he is rescued and reformed by his sister, and an undercover agent for the express company.
Zane Grey Theater (1956) - TV Series
An anthology based (earlier more so than later) on the novels and stories of Zane Grey. Dick Powell was often the star, as well as the host.
Rangle River is drying up and Dick Drake, the outback station's head stockman is desperate to find water for his cattle. Strangely, the suave Donald Lawton's adjoining property has plenty of water. Compounding his problems, Marion Hastings, daughter of the station owner returns from years overseas, accompanied by self-invited Englishman Reggie Mannister. While Dick and Marion clash over who is running the station , Reggie sets about solving the irrigation mystery.
Adam Larey is looking for the killer of his father when he was a boy. His only clue is a brand and he finds it when he runs into the Collinshaws. When he learns that Jim Collinshaw, now an old man and an invalid is the one, he is unable to kill him and leaves. But Eliot then kills Collinshaw and blames Adam and Adam finds himself in jail charged with the murder.
The wall to Surprise Valley has broken, and Jane Withersteen is forced to choose between Lassiter’s life and Fay Larkin’s marriage to a Mormon. Sequel to Riders of the Purple Sage (1931).