Rex Allen

Cremated, his ashes were scattered near the Rex Allen Museum in Wilcox, Arizona where most of his memorabilia is on display. In 2004, he won the Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival for his role in The Sea Inside, a film about the true-life suicide of Ramón Sampedro. Rex Allen died in 1999 in Tucson, Arizona from injuries received when his caretaker accidentally ran over him in the driveway of his home. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for the role, the first Spaniard to be so honored. In 1989 his life story was told in the book Rex Allen: "My Life" Sunrise to Sunset - The Arizona Cowboy written by Paula Simpson-Witt and Snuff Garrett. He became well-known outside of Spain when he starred in Before Night Falls in 2000, as homosexual Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas. For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Rex Allen was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6821 Hollywood Blvd. But his role in that film as a sexy stud made him afraid that he would be typecast, and he deliberately decided to avoid such roles later.

Allen was gifted with a rich, pleasant voice, ideally suited for narration and was able to find considerable work as a narrator in a variety of films especially for Walt Disney Pictures wildlife films and TV shows. In 1992 he appeared in Jamón, jamón, an international hit movie. As other cowboy stars made the transition to television, Allen tried too, cast as Dr. Bill Baxter for a half-hour weekly series called Frontier Doctor. He was a member of the Spanish national rugby team. He has the distinction of making the last singing western in 1954. His film debut was at the age of 6, and he appeared in several television series before turning to painting and, eventually, athletics. Late in coming to the industry, his film career was relatively short as the popularity of westerns faded by the mid 1950s. Born in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, he is the latest in a long line of a family which has been making movies since the earliest days of Spanish movie making.

Over his career, Rex Allen wrote and recorded many songs, a number of which were featured in his own films. Javier Ángel Encinas Bardem (born March 1, 1969) is a Spanish actor. Allen's comic relief sidekick in first few pictures was Buddy Ebsen and then character actor, Slim Pickens. Jamon Jamon (1992). One of the top-ten box office draws of the day, whose character was soon depicted in comic books, on screen Allen personified the clean cut, God-fearing American hero of the wild west who wore a white Stetson, loved his faithful horse named "Koko" and had a loyal buddy who shared his adventures. Golden Balls (1993). Beginning in 1950, Allen starred as himself in nineteen of Hollywood's western movies. Mouth To Mouth (1996).

When singing cowboys such as Roy Rogers and Gene Autry were very much in vogue in American film, in 1949 Republic Pictures in Hollywood gave him a screen test and put him under contract. Live Flesh (1997). " In 1948 he signed with Mercury Records where he recorded a number of successful country music albums until 1952 when he switched to the Decca label where he would continue making records into the 1970s. Perdita Durango (1997). He got his start in show business on the East Coast as a vaudeville singer then found work in Chicago as a performer on the WLS Radio program, "National Barn Dance. Second Skin (2000). Born Rex Elvie Allen on a ranch in Mud Springs Canyon, forty miles from Wilcox, Arizona, Rex Allen would grow up to become a popular entertainer known as the "The Arizona Cowboy." As a boy he played guitar and sang at local functions with his fiddle-playing father until high school graduation when he toured the southwest as a rodeo rider. Before Night Falls (2000).

Rex Allen, born December 31, 1920 - died December 17, 1999, was an American actor, singer, and songwriter. Between Your Legs (2003). The Dancer Upstairs (2003). Mondays In The Sun (2003). The Sea Inside (2004).