Judge Roy Bean Quotes

While doing research, I read an article from an 1884 El Paso Daily Times, which reported that a white railroad worker was on trial for the murder of an unnamed Chinese man. The case was ultimately dismissed. The judge, Roy Bean, cited that Texas law, while prohibiting the murder of human beings, defined a human only as White, African American, or Mexican. The nameless yellow body was not considered human because it did not fit in a slot on a piece of paper. Sometimes you are erased before you are given the choice of stating who you are.

Becoming Roy Bean was an all-consuming project. Walter worked late into the night “making the old fellow come alive.” Weeks of preparation went into his performance. “I have literally become that man and will never for a single instant compromise with his character,” Walter insisted. “He must always be himself and never his brother or his uncle. I find myself eventually thinking like him.” Brennan had to see it in his own eyes as he watched himself on the screen. Had he made Judge Bean come alive? “I always say that an actor is no better than his last day’s rushes,” he said. You cannot fool the camera, Brennan liked to say. “The camera picks up what you think and not what you say or do. The reason I’m proof of that is because I’ve seen me give some lousy performances, and I said, ‘I wonder what I was thinking when I did that.

An avid collector of Old West memorabilia, Walter Brennan remained ensconced in a vision of the American frontier and the myth of bootstrap individualism. As early as 1962, he was deploring the image of America that Hollywood sent abroad with pictures such as West Side Story. “Why don’t we make more pictures like How the West Was Won, The Alamo, The Best Years of Our Lives, and The Westerner?” he asked journalist Jean Bosquet of the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner. Brennan did not seem to realize that in his portrayal of Judge Roy Bean, a character whose mentality borders on a kind of homegrown fascism, he had conveyed the impression of a lawless West.

And, finally, an update on last week’s report on the James Brothers: On Thursday Frank and Jesse filed for a divorce. Judge Roy Bean, however, pointed out that the Brothers were never married, which made their petition null and void, not to mention stupid. (After this ruling, Judge Bean—The Law West of the Pecos—is pretty confident that he’ll be