Duane Loken's official site

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Macahans/How The West Was Won starting on Swedish TV3 on Sunday, January 23 at 14.15

Filmography

TV

Film

TV-appearances

How the West was Won

Links:

The series aired in Sweden last summer and again January 2002. Aftonbladet ran a story on Duane. They pinched most of the content from this site without telling me!

Warning, spoilers!!!

This series was rather long: A pilot (also known as Macahans), a mini series and a long series. The series as a whole depicted the Natives as sympathetic people, especially since Zeb (James Arness) was the hero and usually sided with them. Even so there were occasions where the Natives were shown to be totally incomprehensible to the whites, but I guess they did try to show there were two sides to a story most of the time.

The second series was shot in 1979 (I think), and in the episode "The Enemy", Duane appeared as Wolfpaw. The story goes as follows: As a West Point graduate by the name of lieutenant Ayless (Kip Niven) arrives at the fort where our friend Zeb Macahan is. A woman and her two children gets lost on the prairie in a wagon. She gets picked up by a band of indians, led by Wolfpaw. Wolfpaw is the son of chief Two Bears, who is seen as a good and wise (read friendly to the whites) leader. To make a long story short Wolfpaw and his band is captured by Ayless. After a while it dawns on the viewer that Wolfpaw didn't have anything indecent in mind for this woman. Well, apart from probably being a bit sweet on her in the beginning. He even rescues her son, who would have drowned otherwise. After a while, against odds, a curious trust develops between Wolfpaw and Ayless, and in the end both emerge as heroes. Wolfpaw for his good intentions and good handling of the situations he's in, and Ayless for in the end refusing to sacrifice Wolfpaw and his band to a rivaling tribe, although that would surely have saved Ayless and his soldiers.

This episode launched Duane's career. It was such a sympathetic part, it made him a hero among young girls in Europe (where indians are often seen as heroes anyway, while cowboys were often seen as the bad guys, ignorant as they were).

Centennial

Captures from Centennial

Duane had a small part in the pilot. Only one scene, and not enough to get him noticed on its own (that didn't happen until HTWWW). He played a Cheyenne who "doctored" Pasquinel after he was shot (an arrow) in the back. Pasquinel gave him a rifle as thanks, but the Cheyenne ruined it by using it to clobber a rattlesnake....

Links:
IMDb
Brian Keith movies: Centennial

Mystic Warrior

Captures

This was a mini-series, and Duane had a small part. I haven't seen it yet, so I don't know much about it. There was something about a mirror, and he was seen in scenes with Apollonia.

The series stars Robert Beltran and has lots of Native American actors.

This series was airing on TV about a year ago, but I haven't seen it on any listings lately. It's never been released on video (about high time!). The rights are owned by ABC.

Gröna gubbar från Y.R.

(Green men from outer space). Movie premiere: March 26 1986

One capture from this movie

This is a Swedish movie. Duane plays Randy, a manager for the pop band Bubbles. It's a story about a UFO that crashlands in an amusement park. One of the aliens develops a taste for rock music, and crashes in on Randy backstage as he is waiting for his band to get off stage. Randy finds the alien busily adjusting levers and knobs on a mixing console, and befriends him. Randy then goes on to cover up when a special UFO fighting outfit from the Swedish army comes to get him. The whole story is extremely fictitious, and clearly a tale for children. If you know Swedish and Swedish humour it's hilarious, especially the UFO fighters, who have a knack for finding creative names to tell each other they are idiots (which they clearly are, by the way).

I thought it was impossible to get hold of this movie, but a Swedish fan has found some sources. I don't know if they're still available:
http://www.videobutiken.se
http://www.melodyline.se
Guess you should know Scandinavian anyway to get any use of this movie? Besides, these are in the PAL format, and can't be used in the US without being converted to NTSC (not cheap).

One of the "green men" in this movie has his own website. I believe Ricky Danielsson played the tallest of the three green men (they're played by midgets).

A Different Drum

Captures

The movie is short, longer than a short film, and shorter than a movie. It was made by Brigham Young University, and I originally thought the point was to get young Indians to get an education. The moral is somewhat muddy, but I think it's got to do with getting an education or learning a craft, whatever that may be - either at the University or in life. It may be meant as an inspiration to get people off their butts and do something with their lives.

The story is about a young guy (Davy) and his family. His father gangs up on him (verbally) with the help of other family members and people close to the family. They want him to get an education. Davy wants to do what he's good at: Fixing cars. He's a good mechanic. I won't spoil the story by retelling it here, just tell you that his father eventually has a change of heart and changes his views somewhat.

Cast list: Chief Dan George, Jay Silverheels, Duane Loken, Betty Ann Carr, George American Horse, Lois Red Elk, W. Grant Williams, Larry Watchman

This is the only mention on the internet about this movie, as far as I know!

Links:
IMDb

See his entry in The Internet Movie Database

The Horse Trader - Can be bought from the producer New

Duane plays Harry Benaly. A pretty intense performance, and very different from anything else he's done. He changes his voice to sound older, which you can hear on the trailer (I might do a windows version of this one and upload for you guys).

This short film was made a few years ago. For various reasons we couldn't release the info before now. Among other things, Duane doesn't own the rights to it. We have now gotten permission for the fans to call the producer and order it. The price I heard was 10 dollars per film, plus postage. The name on the credits is a typo, for those who are wondering.

 

There was a short segment with Duane on a Swedish television show a while ago. A little video from one of his performances in 1980, I believe, plus a phone interview.

Ulvefot - ny norsk side Home Bio Photos Filmography Discography Facts Voicemail Guestbook Contact

Training:

Special skills:

Duane is in great shape (November 2006).

This is a partical listing of his skills, and deviates a little from his resume (check that too):

Motorcycle riding, horse riding, bareback horse riding, car racing, singing, surfing, some karate, stunts (I've seen photos from a balancing act on motorcycles/car), voices/humor (cracks me up constantly), Amslan sign language.

He's handy with power tools, and knows his way around film equipment.

Stats:
Height: 6' 1 1/2''
Weight: Probably around 165

Duane has had lots of other parts, but didn't keep track of most of them.

If you remember seeing him in something, even if you're not sure, could you please tell me? I'll run it by Duane, and then add it to this page.