The Virginian

Owen Wister's classic story from 1902, about the cowboy who is forced to hang his oldest friend enjoyed a long run on the legitimate stage before the Lasky Feature Play Company and director-general Cecil B. DeMille tackled the story for the screen. Dustin Farnum (who had created the character on stage) played the heroic lead, with Winifred Kingston as his schoolmarm love interest and Billy Elmer in the all-important roles of bad man Trampas. William S. Hart had played the role on stage opposite Farnum until the pedantic actor began questioning Wister's knowledge of the West and found himself in the unemployment line. Despite Wister's lack of knowledge of things western, his story had enough power to be filmed three more times -- 1923, 1929 (featuring Gary Cooper in the title-role and Walter Huston as Trampas), and 1946 -- not to mention the 1962-1970 television series.