Lyle Bettger(1915-2003)
- Actor
Handsome, blond-haired, steely-eyed villain in many film Westerns. He
was never the grizzled outlaw, covered in trail dust. No, he was the
immaculate-looking, "respectable" (but two-faced) dandy in silk damask
vest, often puffing suavely on a cheroot, whose ashes he then might
contemptuously flick in the hero's face. He could confront an
antagonist wearing a wry smile, even while neatly inserting his dirk
between the latter's ribs. One wonders why Bettger, with his Aryan
looks and menacing sneer, never became typecast as the stereotypical
Nazi SS officer or Gestapo interrogator. (Perhaps the man was just
fortunate in that regard.)
