The Gambler is a series of five American Western television films starring Kenny Rogers as Brady Hawkes, a fictional old-west gambler. The character was inspired by Rogers' hit single "The Gambler".[1]
Kenny Rogers as The Gambler debuted on CBS on April 8, 1980.[2][3] It was a ratings and critical success that has spawned four sequels.[3] The show won a Best Edited Television Special Eddie Award and garnered two Emmy Award nominations (for cinematography and editing of a limited series).[4]
Kenny Rogers stars as Brady Hawkes, the titular gambler, who embarks on a journey to meet Jeremiah (Ronnie Scribner), the young son he never knew after Jeremiah sends him a letter. Along the way, Brady meets Billy Montana (Bruce Boxleitner) and the two become friends. Billy (while trying to help Brady in his quest) fancies himself as a professional poker player on his own. Although Billy makes mistakes along the way (some of these include trying to find a way to cheat or do some smooth talking), Brady makes sure that he stays on good behavior during a train ride to Yuma. The duo help Jennie Reed (Lee Purcell), a prostitute who has trouble with a train baron. At the end, Brady's son's stepfather (Clu Gulager) is confronted.
Kenny Rogers again stars as Brady Hawkes in the miniseries Kenny Rogers as The Gambler: The Adventure Continues which premiered on November 28 and 29, 1983.[2] The show was an even bigger ratings success than the first and was nominated for two Emmy Awards (sound editing and sound mixing of a limited series).[5]
Billy Montana, Brady, and his son Jeremiah (now played by Charles Fields) are traveling to a gambling event in San Francisco when they encounter the vicious McCourt gang. The McCourt gang force the train to stop and they take Jeremiah hostage and demand a $1 million ransom. Brady and Billy are determined to get Jeremiah back as well as the $1 million ransom which belonged to the train boss. Brady and Billy find help in their mission and meet a female bounty hunter Kate Muldoon played by Linda Evans. Kate is the fastest female gun in the west. They form a posse together in a race to save Jeremiah.
The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw is a 1991 television film starring Kenny Rogers as Brady Hawkes and Reba McEntire as Burgundy Jones.[8] Rogers reprises Hawkes in the fourth installment of the series. The film originally aired on NBC on November 3, 1991. It was nominated for a Costume Design Emmy.[9]
It's 1906 and professional gambling will be outlawed in just three weeks. Therefore, Burgundy Jones (McEntire) has just that long to get Brady Hawkes safely to San Francisco for the last poker tournament, with a very special mystery player. This is made more difficult, as Hawkes is still smarting after a hard-fought loss to another professional poker player in England, who will also be at the tournament.
The film features Rogers' character running across a galaxy of old TV western stars played by the original actors, including Gene Barry as Bat Masterson, Hugh O'Brian as Wyatt Earp, Jack Kelly as Bart Maverick, Clint Walker as Cheyenne Bodie, David Carradine as Kung Fu's Caine, Chuck Connors and Johnny Crawford from The Rifleman, Brian Keith as The Westerner, James Drury and Doug McClure from The Virginian (Drury and McClure play thinly disguised different characters, Jim and Doug, due to rights issues for Owen Wister's character), and Paul Brinegar from Rawhide.
Brady Hawkes' son, Jeremiah (with Kris Kamm as the third actor in the role) gets involved with outlaws Butch Cassidy (Scott Paulin) and the Sundance Kid (Brett Cullen).[10] Brady tries to save him before he winds up in jail or dead.
On March 15, 2011, Kenny Rogers told Jimmy Fallon on his television show, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, that he was asked if he would want to be in another Gambler movie. He began by saying that he had a bad knee and thought it would be hard for him, but continued and said that the first scene in the movie would be a shootout. Supposedly, he would get shot in the shoulder and knee to cover his physical disabilities.[11] However, in the years that followed Rogers announced his retirement from show business and stated that his 2016 tour would be his last and after this he would be spending his time with family. Rogers later died on March 20, 2020.[12]
The Gambler series generated five Emmy Award nominations. Rogers made his acting debut in the original film The Gambler, which was a massive ratings hit that achieved critical success for CBS upon its original release on April 8, 1980. It was nominated for two Emmy Awards.
By popular demand, Rogers returned as Brady Hawkes in The Gambler: The Adventure Continues, which premiered in November 1983 on CBS. The film was an even bigger ratings success than the first and was nominated for an additional two Emmy Awards. The Gambler Part III: The Legend Continues followed in 1987 (also on CBS), and the Emmy-nominated fourth installment of the series, The Gambler Returns: The Luck Of The Draw, starring Rogers and Reba McEntire, aired on NBC in 1991. The series moved back to CBS for the 1994 finale, Gambler V: Playing For Keeps. The first four movies of the series were directed by Dick Lowry and the last was directed by Jack Bender.
Brady Hawkes is back in this rip-roaring sequel to The Gambler. When Brady's son Jeremiah is kidnapped by a vicious gang, the gambler and his sidekick Billy Montana saddle up to rescue him. With the aid of the quick-drawing Kat Muldoon (Linda Evans - Dynasty), the stakes couldn't be higher. Will this pair of aces with a queen kicker come out on top?
Brady Hawkes and Billy Montana ride again in this thrilling continuation of The Gambler saga. When the Sioux Nation is threatened by corrupt U.S. Calvary and government officials, it's up to the two friends to resolve the conflict. Also starring Linda Gray, Melanie Chartoff, George Kennedy, and Jeffrey Jones.
In the tradition of The Gambler series, Coward of the County takes its inspiration from one of Kenny Rogers' all-time greatest hits. Rogers plays a small-town preacher whose nephew has taken a pledge of pacifism at the request of his dying father. The young man's oath is tested when the Gatlin boys attack his loving wife. Featuring Frederic Lane, Largo Woodruff, and William Schreiner.
The Gambler started out as a hit country western song by Kenny Rogers. The songcouldn't have been more than 5 minutes long and told the story of a Gambler giving out advice to afellow traveler before at the end of the song he dies in his sleep. Five minutes then dead.
But that dead gambler ended up being the star and center for five TV moviesstarring Kenny Rogers. Much longer than five minutes worth of time and I never saw any sign of the guycoming close to a fatal nap.
For the first three movies Kenny Rogers' gambler Brady Hawkes found asidekick in the form of Bruce Boxleitner. After The Gambler III though Bruce B. felt he might begetting a little old to be holding the reigns of Kenny's horse and bowed out.
For the fourth TV flick I think the producers might have been a littlenervous about having lost one of their stars and having the whole film resting on Kenny's shoulders. I mean by this time the Gambler movies were two night four hour long monsters and while a likable guyas an actor Kenny was a great singer and chicken salesman. I picture someone on set saying, "Kennydon't act very well," and Kenny overhearing and thinking it was an order.
Sorry, watching what should have been a 90 minute B-western stretched to fourhours has me a bit grumpy. Anyway, to compensate for Bruce Boxleitner leaving the filmmakers stockedthe film full of other talent and attractions to support Kenny. The Gambler Returns became a hugetribute to classic westerns. The cast was studded with famous country faces. Country music star RebaMcEntire, who is also a solid actress, costarred with Kenny. The cast was also full of familiarB-Western actors. You know, the guys not famous for a specific part but played the general camp cookin every other western or the guy who was "Guy At The Bar" in Gunsmoke, Bonanza and all shows inbetween.
But the real masterstroke of the film was in bringing in having The Gamblercross paths with the characters and locations from around seven different classic TV westerns. Havinghim cross paths with them all was cool but having all these legends being good friends with KennyRogers and selling him as being maybe more impressive than them... well that was pushing it.
The story of this four hour extravaganza had Kenny's Brady Hawkes heading toSan Francisco to play in the greatest poker game of all time. The finale of his gambling career. Reba McEntire played Burgundy Jones, a... lady of easy virtue who is supplying Brady with the money forthe game. She and her professional colleagues put up the money and planned to use their share of thewinnings to help support the home they had for their children and local orphans (yes, the prostitutesran an orphanage). So the plot is Brady Hawkes, his new sidekick Ethan Cassidy and Burgundy Joneshave to go to San Francisco for a card game and this took four hours. Along the way they encounteredthe following characters for the following reasons. Please note that while all of these charactersappeared in the movie they didn't all necessarily have scenes with each other.
At the start of the movie Brady Hawkes receives some help from Chuck Connorscharacter of Lucas McCain from The Rifleman. The show The Rifleman had been about western pioneer andwidower McCain raising his son Mark McCain on his own and dealing out justice with his distinctiverifle (duh). The second half of the movie begins with Burgundy Jones and Ethan Cassidy also crossingpaths with son mark McCain. At this point in the story Kenny and his friends have temporarily partedcompany. Seeing a saddled but riderless horse rush by Ethan assumed there must be trouble and rushedto the rescue. As he brought the white horse under control the Lone Ranger's theme music dramaticallyflared to life. Then there was a loud shout of "cut" and Ethan realized that he had actually stumbledinto a western being filmed. And who should be working on the film but Mark McCain (who of course wasfriends with Ethan). The director of the film (played by Mickey Rooney and named D.W. implying he waspioneer filmmaker D.W. Griffith) offers him on the spot the chance to star in the movie. Ethan saysno and instead the part goes to Mark. Now they never say they are making a Lone Ranger movie(probably to avoid paying $$$ for the privilege) but they do play his music and the horse isspecifically called Silver so figure it out.
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