The premiere of Steve McQueen’s ‘Wanted Dead or Alive,’ featuring Michael Landon

Steve McQueen and Michael Landon both launched their iconic careers in cult science fiction films and TV westerns. In fact the duo shared the small screen just one time in the pilot episode of the King of Cool’s “Wanted: Dead or Alive” series, 1958’s “The Martin Poster.” In the accompanying vintage still tenacious bounty hunter Josh Randall has a twinkle in his eye while pondering his next target as captured on the Selznick Studios set of “Wanted: Dead or Alive” circa 1959. Image Credit: DukeWayne.com forum user Gorch / CBS Photo Archive

If you are not a Medium member, read the complete article here for free.

Before the debut episode of the classic western television series Wanted: Dead or Alive dropped, nobody knew who Steve McQueen was. Sure, the 28-year-old fledgling actor had trained in New York at the famed Neighborhood Playhouse as well as the Actors’ Studio, had his big screen premiere in a blink and you’ll miss it role as a knife wielding thug in Paul Newman’s Somebody Up There Likes Me [1956], and received good reviews for his Broadway performance of A Hatful of Rain.

But then McQueen filmed the cult favorite science fiction movie The Blob during August 1957. Although the film wasn’t released until after Wanted: Dead or Alive, former actor-then producer Dick Powell viewed a rough cut and liked what he saw in McQueen’s nuanced performance.

So the actor was quickly offered a role in Trackdown, another western series starring Robert Culp of future I Spy fame. Filmed in February 1958, “The Bounty Hunter” episode unleashed Josh Randall, a tough as nails individual who let no obstacle stand between he and his quarry.

With favorable fan reaction, one of the earliest spin-off series was born courtesy of Powell’s Four Star Television. Wanted: Dead or Alive commenced…