Jack Lord

Jack Lord's Coaley, the outlaw henchman in Man of the West (1958), is suspicious and sadistic, and Lord makes him someone we would rather not spend time with. In Anthony Mann's bleak Western, that unpleasantness is useful: beside Gary Cooper's quiet central performance, Lord makes an effective threat. We were unsettled by the film because it takes the damage done by violence seriously, and Coaley's cruelty contributes to that discomfort. There is no need for him to make the character appealing.

His Felix Leiter in Dr. No (1962) is a less abrasive use of the same assurance. As the first screen incarnation of the CIA operative and Bond ally, Lord supplies an American counterpart who need not advertise his competence. Beside Connery, though, he can seem bland. The performance does its supporting job, but Connery's introduction remains the attraction, and Lord's smoothness gives us less to consider than Coaley's malice.

Those parts suggest two paths for an actor repeatedly cast as either a threat or a man in charge. The title role in the rodeo-rider series Stoney Burke (1962–63) came before Steve McGarrett in Hawaii Five-O (1968–80), created by Leonard Freeman. McGarrett made Lord's no-nonsense authority the basis of a procedural that ran for twelve seasons. We can see why that steadiness sustained the part, even if we find his less reassuring film work more interesting.

The limitation is that Lord can make a capable leading man seem rather blank; the assurance tells us he can manage a situation without necessarily making us curious about him. Mann gives him a better use in Man of the West, where being difficult company is part of the job. That film can become oppressively solemn, and Lee J. Cobb sometimes pushes too hard, but Lord is worth seeking out within it. Start there if McGarrett has left you expecting only a dependable policeman.