The 2016 Western Heritage Awards

The Western Heritage Awards celebrate the best of the West on film, in music, in literature and in real life at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. A Wrangler Statue is presented to every Western Heritage Award winner. Established in 1961, the Western Heritage Awards salute outstanding works in literature, music, television and film that best portray the history and culture of the American West. The Wrangler award, a bronze sculpture of a cowboy on horseback, was presented for works completed in 2015.
This year, Wranglers were be bestowed on creators of Western-genre works in 13 categories.
Wyoming author C. J. Box was presented with a Wrangler literary award for his novel, "Endangered - A Joe Pickett Novel," the latest in his series of some 20 books dealing with a Wyoming game warden.
Mount, 43, was one of the evening's Wrangler recipients for his role on AMC's "Hell on Wheels" series, which recently wound up its fifth and final season. On the AMC series, Mount plays Cullen Bohannon, an embittered former Confederate soldier working on the construction of the first Transcontinental Railroad across the United States in the years following the Civil War.
The awards gala also recognized inductees into the prestigious Hall of Great Western Performers and the Hall of Great Westerners, as well as the recipient of the Chester A. Reynolds Memorial Award, named in honor of the museum's founder. Receiving the Reynolds award was Vincent "Rusty" Richards, 82, a singer, songwriter, recording artist, horse trainer, poet and author from Orange County, California.
Named in honor of the museum's founder, the Reynolds award recognizes a living individual (or group) who has demonstrated, through a body of quality of work over a period of years, unwavering commitment to Western principles.
During a career that spanned six decades, Richards was a bronc and bull rider, did stunt work on such classic TV Westerns as "Rawhide," "Wagon Train," "Gunsmoke," "Bonanza" and "Have Gun - Will Travel," and sang tenor for 21 years with the Sons of the Pioneers.
Academy Award-winning actor Tommy Lee Jones, a Texas native, was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers. Jones, who could not attend the awards banquet due to back surgery, sent his deepest regrets at missing the occasion.
Jones has appeared in more than 63 films and television series, seven of which have been Westerns. He won a Wrangler award in 2006 for "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada," a film in which he starred, produced and directed.
Posthumously inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers this year were the late actors Lee Marvin (1924-1987) and Bob Steele (1907-1988). To be inducted, actors must have made significant contributions to the perpetuation of the Western film, radio or theatre.
Marvin received a Wrangler award in 1963 for the film, "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance," and a Best Actor Oscar in 1965 for his dual roles in the Western comedy classic, "Cat Ballou."
Robert North Bradbury Jr. was born in 1907 in Pendleton, Oregon. Renamed Bob Steele by early-day movie moguls, he starred in nearly 100 B-Westerns between 1930 and 1946.
Steele began the "Billy the Kid" serials in 1940, appeared as Tucson Smith - one of the "Three Mesquiteers - until 1943 and then worked on the "Trail Blazers" series with Hoot Gibson and Ken Maynard, both of whom have already been inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers.
After World War II and the advent of television, Steele appeared in a variety of supporting movie roles and in various TV Westerns, including a regular supporting role on the ABC series "F Troop."
Two legendary ranchers and cattle men, the late Enrique E. Guerra (1929-2016) of Linn, Texas, and the late George Lane (1856-1925) of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, were inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners. People receiving this honor are being recognized for extraordinary achievement and historical significance and must exemplify traditional Western values of honesty, integrity and self-sufficiency.
A respected cattleman, historian/collector and seventh-generation Texan, Guerra lived on San Vincente Ranch, part of an ancestral land grant, and was affectionately known as "the last Spanish don." Guerra died unexpectedly on March 16.
Lane was one of the founders of the annual Calgary Stampede celebration and an early proponent of integrating the U.S. and Canadian cattle markets.
Canadian member of Parliament John Barlow, who traveled with the Lanes for the induction, said George Lane was the first Canadian to be inducted into the museum's Hall of Great Westerners.
The 2016 Western Heritage film, music and literary award winners are:
Television Feature Film: "Texas Rising," produced by A+E Studios, ITV Studios America and Thinkfactory Media.
Fictional Drama: "Hell on Wheels," the "Hungry Ghosts" episode, produced by Entertainment One Television, Nomadic Pictures, Endemol, American Movie Classics, Endemol Entertainment UK and H.O.W. Productions.
Documentary: "Unbranded," produced by Fin & Fur Films and Implement Productions.
Western Lifestyle: "Red Steagall is Somewhere West of Wall Street," Thunderhead Productions.
Western Novel: "Endangered: A Joe Pickett Novel," by C.J. Box.
Nonfiction Book: "The Western Cattle Trail," by Gary and Margaret Kraisinger.
Art Book: "Painted Journeys," by Peter H. Hassrick and Mindy N. Besaw.
Photography Book: "Laguna Pueblo," by Lee Marmon and Tom Corbett.
Juvenile Book: "Texas Tales Illustrated: The Trail Drives," by Mike Kearby.
Magazine Article: "Finding the American West in Twenty-First Century Italy," by Renee M. Laegreid.
Poetry Book: "Woe to the Land Shadowing," by Red Shuttleworth.
Original Western Composition: "Ride a Wide Circle," by Mary Kaye.
Traditional Western Album: "Singing Songs by Waddie & Pipp," composed and recorded by Waddie Mitchell and Pipp Gillette.

Western Heritage Awards History - Explore the West

Western Heritage Awards 2016 Part 1-8

Western Heritage Awards 2016 Part 2-8

Western Heritage Awards 2016 Part 3-8

Western Heritage Awards 2016 Part 4-8

Western Heritage Awards 2016 Part 5-8

Western Heritage Awards 2016 Part 6-8

Western Heritage Awards 2016 Part 7-8

Western Heritage Awards 2016 Part 8-8

Western Heritage Awards History - Explore the West

Western Heritage Awards 2016 Part 1-8

Western Heritage Awards 2016 Part 2-8

Western Heritage Awards 2016 Part 3-8

Western Heritage Awards 2016 Part 4-8

Western Heritage Awards 2016 Part 5-8

Western Heritage Awards 2016 Part 6-8

Western Heritage Awards 2016 Part 7-8

Western Heritage Awards 2016 Part 8-8