Once upon a time in Hollywood, great TV Westerns were all the rage, and actors who later became A-list movie stars often graced their saloons. Jack Nicholson was no different. Before being catapulted into the mainstream with movies like “Easy Rider” and “Chinatown,” he had a one-off guest starring role on ABC’s “The Guns of Will Sonnett” (co-created by Aaron Spelling) before sunsetting his small-screen career shortly after.
“The Guns of Will Sonnett” chronicles the adventures of the eponymous cowboy (Walter Brennan) as he embarks on an adventure across the West with his grandson, Jeff (Dack Rambo), to find his son, James (Jason Evers). Will’s son is a formidable gunslinger who left his family behind years ago, and he’s made plenty of enemies across the frontier since going out on his own.
Nicholson can be found in Season 1’s “A Son for a Son” episode. His character, Tom Murdock, crosses paths with the show’s heroes when they spend the night at his family’s farm. Like many people the Sonnetts cross paths with, he is familiar with the exploits of Will’s gunslinger son, which causes some tension.
Western TV series got away from Jack Nicholson, according to Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino — the Hollywood legend whose TV directing credits include two episodes of “CSI” — shared an interesting story about Jack Nicholson’s career ambitions. Speaking with the New Beverly Cinema, he recalled Bruce Dern telling him that Nicholson probably would’ve been happy to appear on more TV Westerns.
“Bruce [who plays George Spahn in “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood”] told me that he and Jack killed themselves trying to get on Western shows. And I mean, guesting on them… ‘The Virginian’ is on for nine years –- Doug McClure and James Drury stayed there, but then the rest of the cast like rotates every four years… They wanted to get on a series… Like Nicholson would have loved to have been on ‘The Virginian’ in its sixth season.”
Nicholson never got to saddle up for a run on “The Virginian,” but his career turned out to be quite successful without it.