Chief Dan George is perhaps best known for playing Old Lodge Skins in the 1970 Western Little Big Man. He was not the first choice.
Director Arthur Penn initially wanted Sir Laurence Olivier for the part. He also considered Paul Scofield. Marlon Brando turned down the role. Richard Boone was slated to take it but pulled out at the last minute.
It was only then that Penn heeded something author Thomas Berger’s analysis—that white actors are usually not very good in playing India

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