The Only Main Actors Still Alive From 1973's Westworld Movie

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As Hollywood adjusted to the whims and desires of Baby Boomer moviegoers heading into the 1970s, studios found themselves making fewer and fewer Westerns. Long one of the most reliably profitable genres, younger viewers who'd come of age rebelling against much of what their parents held dear were turned off by this continued mythologizing of how America pursued its manifest destiny. They rejected John Wayne, but turned out for Italian-produced Spaghetti Westerns, especially those starring Clint Eastwood. As a result, the only semi-traditional Hollywood Westerns Boomers would embrace tended to feature Eastwood in the starring role (e.g. "High Plains Drifter" and "The Outlaw Josey Wales").

One notable exception to the Eastwood rule was Michael Crichton's sci-fi/Western blend "Westworld." The 1973 film stars Richard Benjamin and James Brolin as a pair of buddies who take a vacation to an adult amusement park called Delos to live out their dreams of being gunslingers in the Old West. They get to ride into town on horses, get sloshed at the local saloon, sample the local brothel's bill of fare and, of course, get in a duel with a deadly quick-draw artist (Yul Brynner). They're having the time of their lives until the park's lifelike androids revolt against their programming and begin killing off the park's visitors. It's a nifty premise. Someone should make a television series out of it (and not unceremoniously cancel it).

It's been 51 years since "Westworld" did bang-up business at the U.S. box office (thus spawning a decidedly less entertaining sequel called "Futureworld"), so you probably won't be surprised to learn that much of its cast is no longer with us (if you were sentient in the 1980s, you'll never forget Yul Brynner's posthumous anti-smoking commercial). But three of the films principals are still very much alive and kicking, so let's give them a big Delos shoutout!

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The gray-haired actor who played the concerned-but-not-concerned-enough Chief Supervisor of Delos appears to still be active at the age of 94. If he looks familiar, it's because he was the first thespian to portray Ralph Malph's dad on "Happy Days," a frequent guest star on "Hogan's Heroes" (as a handful of different characters), and three different characters on three different "Star Trek" series ("The Next Generation," "Deep Space Nine," and "Voyager"). If he sounds familiar, that's because he's one of the most prolific voice actors of the last 50 years, lending his voice to series like Ghostbusters, Thundarr the Barbarian, and He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (he was Man-at-Arms and many other characters). In 2022, Oppenheimer voiced King Greyskull in the revamped "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe," and played both He-Man and Skeletor in "Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers," so that voice hopefully isn't going to leave us anytime soon.

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When Brolin took on the role of John Blane in "Westworld," he was already a television star thanks to his Primetime Emmy-winning portrayal of Dr. Steven Kiley on "Marcus Welby, M.D." Spoiler alert if you've never seen the movie (seriously, clear out now), but this made his demise at the hands of Brynner heading into the third act, where the androids go nutzoid, something of a shock for moviegoers in 1973.

Given his matinee idol good looks, there was a sense that Brolin would become a movie star in due time. That dream died suddenly when he attempted to portray the legendary Hollywood star Clark Gable in Sidney J. Furie's biographical monstrosity "Gable and Lombard." The movie is all but forgotten today, but the nation's film critics teed off on it when it hit theaters in 1976 (Gene Siskel likened Gable's performance to one of the animatronics at the Magic Kingdom's Hall of Presidents). Brolin ultimately retreated to television and scored another long-running hit drama in the 1980s with "Hotel." In the 1990s, he starred on the syndicated action series "Pensacola: Wings of Gold," and has most recently provided the voice of the narrator on "Sweet Tooth." You might also be aware that the 84-year-old is presently Mr. Barbra Streisand.

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The only reason moviegoers of 1973 weren't completely shocked that (spoiler warning again) James Brolin got shot down in cold android blood by Yul Brynner three-quarters of the way through "Westworld" is that Richard Benjamin was a movie star. He'd earned critical plaudits for his debut performance in Larry Peerce's adaptation of Philip Roth's novel "Goodbye Columbus," and proved an appealing Danby in Mike Nichols film of Joseph Heller's satirical masterpiece "Catch-22."

Benjamin's star faded heading into the 1980s when he appeared in a few suspect, if not outright lousy movies in "How to Beat the High Co$t of Living," "Witches' Brew," and "Saturday the 14th," so he turned to directing. His first two efforts, "My Favorite Year" and "Racing with the Moon," demonstrated tremendous range; the former was a heartfelt screwball throwback starring a rambunctious Peter O'Toole, while the latter worked beautifully as a bittersweet coming-of-age tale toplined by Sean Penn and Nicolas Cage. Whatever mojo Benjamin had working on those first two movies evidently vanished. His subsequent directorial efforts were mostly misfires (the Clint Eastwood-Burt Reynolds team-up "City Heat" was a disaster, "Downtown" is one of the worst buddy-cop action flicks ever made, and the less said about "Milk Money," the better). Benjamin hasn't directed since 2003, but the 86-year-old did recently make an appearance in the 2023 dark comedy "Ex-Husbands." He's a welcome presence in anything, so here's hoping directors keep him in mind for brainy, neurotic elder roles.