Meet Audie Murphy's intimidating 'Arizona Raiders' boss Michael Dante
Unapologetic desperado Michael Dante first set foot in front of a motion picture camera for the 1956 boxing classic Somebody Up There Likes Me in a blink and you'll miss it bit part as one of Paul Newman's street thug pals opposite another then-unknown actor—Steve McQueen. By the early '60s the former professional baseball player had risen up the ranks supporting Monty Clift and Liz Taylor [Raintree County], James Garner [Maverick], Randolph Scott [Westbound], and Elvis Presley [Kid Galahad] when he struck up a friendship with highly decorated To Hell and Back infantryman Audie Murphy. Dante costarred in two back-to-back westerns directed by Tarantino's top action maestro William Witney—Apache Rifles and Arizona Raiders—and intended to reunite with Murphy in 1971 if destiny had not come calling in The Perfect Target, overhauled extensively into the Don Knotts Disney vehicle Hot Lead and Cold Feet. One of the No Name on the Bullet star's few surviving Hollywood contemporaries, the nonagenarian exclusively summons his respect for Texas' favorite son starting now.
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