AS SEEN ON TV: WILLIAM QUANTRILL

WILLIAM QUANTRILL

AS SEEN IN:
'Stories Of The Century'

AS PLAYED BY:
Bruce Bennett

William Clarke Quantrill (July 31, 1837 – June 6, 1864), was a Confederate guerrilla leader during the American Civil War. After leading a Confederate bushwhacker unit along the Missouri-Kansas border in the early 1860s, which included the infamous raid and sacking of Lawrence, Kansas in 1863, Quantrill eventually ended up in Kentucky where he was killed in a Union ambush in 1864, aged 27.

No matter the production or fictional universe, every portrayal I've ever seen of Quantrill is played by a much older actor. In Toobworld, that includes Broderick Crawford, Forrest Tucker, and in this case, Bruce Bennett. Only Robin Wilcox in an episode of 'The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne' came close to being the same age.

A pozz'ble recastaway solution? The TV West was full of posers, who wanted the glory gained by others, and were willing to claim they were the legend themselves - even to the death. Many of these "Quantrills" were probably bitter ex-Confederate soldiers who had nothing to show for their lives, so they decided to usurp one that promised revenge for the South.....

BCnU!
Toby O'B