LITTLE BIG SCREEN BIRTHDAY WISH - "MAVERICK" & WAYLON JENNINGS

As we conclude our month-long salute to James Garner, Bret Maverick, 'Maverick' the TV show, and especially "Maverick" the movie, we have one last gambler to look at from that marathon poker competition.

Played by Waylon Jennings, he never even got the chance to play because Bret Maverick Senior caught him and his lady friend (played by Kathy Mattea) sneaking concealed guns on board the riverboat.

So who was that tall dark stranger there?

Waylon Jennings was better known as a singer and his best Toobworld presence was a combination of acting and singing - as "The Balladeer", that ghost-like, unseen narrator of each episode of 'The Dukes Of Hazzard'.

It's "Slim Pickins" for options as to who Waylon's gun-toting gambler was.  One pozz'bility could have been Tobey Naylor in "The Long Kill" - if it weren't for the fact that his murder near the beginning of the TV movie is the catalyst for the rest of the movie.

And then there's the third remake of "Stagecoach", in which Waylong Jennings portrayed Hatfield, the passenger who was a gambler.....

I haven't seen this TV movie, so I don't know if it holds true to the original story.  If I remember that correctly, the gambler (played by John Carradine) died during the journey.  The same may have been the fate for Jennings' Hatfield.

In the end, it doesn't matter.  The only thing that mattered was that I gave Waylon Jennings' "Maverick" cameo a showcase on this specific day.

Because today is the birthday for my cousin Coco Manson, and Coco is a big fan of Waylon Jennings.  How could I not take this opportunity to acknowledge that and wish her all the best for the next trip around the Sun?

Happy birthday, Cuz!