Respect from Audie Murphy’s intimidating ‘Arizona Raiders’ boss Michael Dante

On the Old Tucson set of “Arizona Raiders” in December 1964, a grinning Audie Murphy slyly places his left hand onto unsuspecting friend Michael Dante’s six-gun holster. Image courtesy of Melissa Marks / The Audie Murphy Research Foundation

Unapologetic desperado Michael Dante first set foot in front of a motion picture camera for Somebody Up There Likes Me in a blink and you’ll miss it bit part as one of magnetic boxer Paul Newman’s street thug pals opposite another then-unknown actor — Steve McQueen. By the early ’60s the former professional baseball player had risen up the ranks supporting Monty Clift and Liz Taylor [Raintree County], James Garner [Maverick], Randolph Scott [Westbound], and Elvis Presley [Kid Galahad] when he struck up a friendship with highly decorated To Hell and Back infantryman Audie Murphy. Dante costarred in two back-to-back westerns directed by Tarantino’s top action maestro William Witney — Apache Rifles and Arizona Raiders — and intended to reunite with Murphy in 1971 if destiny had not come calling in The Perfect Target, overhauled extensively into the Don Knotts Disney vehicle Hot Lead and Cold Feet. One of the No Name on the Bullet star’s few surviving La-La Land contemporaries, the nonagenarian exclusively summons his respect for Texas’ favorite son starting now.

Captured Apache chief-in-waiting Red Hawk [Michael Dante] and cavalry officer Jeff Stanton [Audie Murphy] form an uncomfortable alliance in director William Witney’s pro-Native American “Apache Rifles” issued on Nov. 26, 1964. Image courtesy of Melissa Marks / The Audie Murphy Research Foundation

The Michael Dante Interview