Actor Guinn Williams carried the nickname of “Big Boy” due to his 6’2” frame. The native Texan and experienced cowboy got his Hollywood start in 1919 when he was 20 years old, mostly serving as a stuntman. But a friendship with Will Rogers got him bigger roles in the silent and talkies.
He usually played good-hearted but somewhat dim sidekicks in Westerns like “Dodge City” and “Santa Fe Trail” (both with pal Erroll Flynn) and “The Alamo” and “The Comancheros” (with

True West March/April 2025
In This Issue:
Western Books & Movies
More In This Issue
- Truth Be Known
- What Has Taught Me: Deb Goodrich
- Earp, Cowboy Songs & Prairie Hygiene
- Trails of the Old West
- The Frontier Characters of South Dakota
- The Bowie Knife
- The Kindled Flame 1835
- King of the Scatterguns
- Selling the Mythic West and the Real West
- A Gut Punch Turns into a Miracle Reprieve
- The Beginnings of the Bird Cage
- Frontier Colossus