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Hank Worden Born as Norton Earl Worden, in Rolfe, IA. on July 23, 1901. The actor Hank Worden was raised on a cattle ranch in Montana, and was educated at the University of Nevada and Stanford University in the field of engineering. Never losing his love for horses, Hank toured the country in rodeos as a saddle bronc rider. He broke his neck in a horse fall in his 20s, but didn't know it until undergoing a physical when he was in his 40s. The rodeo life got him started down the road to acting when a Broadway producer saw him and another young cowboy named Tex Ritter performing in a rodeo at Madison Square Garden. Both were hired to act in "Green Grow the Lilacs", the play on which the musical "Oklahoma" was based. Hank then drove a cab in New York and worked on dude ranches as a wrangler and as a guide on the Bright Angel trail of the Grand Canyon. A friend recommended him to several Western movie producers. And he eventually got some small roles and became friends with such shakers and movers as John Ford, Howard Hawks and John Wayne. He moved into films, mostly westerns, playing sidekicks, henchmen, deputies, townsmen, etc. with his friend Tex Ritter and also with Bob Baker, Buck Jones, Gene Autry, George O'Brien, Hopalong Cassidy, Tim Holt, Range Busters and others. . Became friends with, John Wayne, Howard Hawks and later John Ford, all of whom provided him with much work. He wound up being part of director John Ford's stable of regulars, and is best remembered as Ol' Mose Harper in Ford's "The Searchers," which starred John Wayne. . He usually played an eccentric character in small roles, such as "Poordevil" in the movie "Big Sky" with Kirk Douglas. He, along with Ward Bond, and was one of a select number in John Wayne's inner circle. Hank Worden appeared in more than 150 films. And a sample of his Western movie credits includes Ghost-town Gold (1936), The Plainsman (1936), Sing, Cowboy, Sing (1937), Where the Buffalo Roam (1938), Stagecoach (1939), Oklahoma Frontier (1939), Prairie Law (1940), Dude Cowboy (1941), Texas Cowboy (1942), Canyon City (1943), Duel in the Sun (1946), Sea of Grass (1947), Fort Apache (1948), Red River (1948), Three Godfathers (1948), The Big Sky (1952), The Searchers (1956), The Horse Soldiers (1959), The Alamo (1960), One-eyed Jacks (1961), McLintock! (1963), True Grit (1969), Chisum (1970), Rio Lobo (1970), Big Jake (1971) and Cahill: U.S. Marshal (1973). Worden died at his home in Brentwood, California on December 6, 1992 of natural causes at age 91.in Los Angeles, CA. Adopted daughter Dawn Henry survives him. His remains are in the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, CA.
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