Home |  Publications|  Encyclopedia |  Carson, Sunset

The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture

Carson wearing a cowboy hat and suit

Sunset Carson
(2012.201.B0993.0594, Oklahoma Publishing Company Photography Collection, OHS).

CARSON, SUNSET (1920–1990).

Rodeo cowboy and actor Sunset Carson was born Winifred Maurice Harrison in Gracemont, Oklahoma, on November 12, 1920. Eight or nine years later the family moved to Plainview, Texas, where he began to take part in rodeos as a teenager. His father, a rodeo entertainer, performed in the Tom Mix Circus, and some claim that Mix suggested that the younger Harrison try film work.

At the suggestion of Republic Pictures, Harrison changed his name to "Sunset Carson," after a car dealership, "Sunset Boulevard Cars." Carson's first starring role came in 1944 film Call of the Rockies. In this picture and all succeeding movies Carson wore his six-shooter backward, with the butt of the gun facing forward. In 1944 he made five films for Republic Pictures and in 1945, seven. In Roy Rogers's 1945 movie Bells of Rosarita Carson joined with other "B" Western cowboys to help Roy defeat the bad guys.

Carson made five final films for Republic in 1946. In later years he made some independent productions that failed to capture the public's attention. He even hosted a public television series in 1980 called Six Gun Heroes. Carson rode off into that last sunset on May 1, 1990, when he died in Reno, Nevada.

Bill Moore

Learn More

Alan G. Barbour, The Thrill of It All (New York: Collier Books, 1971).

Bob Carman and Dan Scapperotti, The Western Films of Sunset Carson (N.p.: R. C. Carman, 1981).

Kalton C. Lahue, Riders of the Range: The Sagebrush Heroes of the Sound Screen (New York: Castle Books, 1973).

Larry O'Dell, comp., Oklahoma @ the Movies (Oklahoma City: Oklahoma Historical Society, 2012).

Citation

The following (as per The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition) is the preferred citation for articles:
Bill Moore, “Carson, Sunset,” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=CA063.

Published January 15, 2010

© Oklahoma Historical Society

Copyright and Terms of Use

No part of this site may be construed as in the public domain.

Copyright to all articles and other content in the online and print versions of The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History is held by the Oklahoma Historical Society (OHS). This includes individual articles (copyright to OHS by author assignment) and corporately (as a complete body of work), including web design, graphics, searching functions, and listing/browsing methods. Copyright to all of these materials is protected under United States and International law.

Users agree not to download, copy, modify, sell, lease, rent, reprint, or otherwise distribute these materials, or to link to these materials on another web site, without authorization of the Oklahoma Historical Society. Individual users must determine if their use of the Materials falls under United States copyright law's "Fair Use" guidelines and does not infringe on the proprietary rights of the Oklahoma Historical Society as the legal copyright holder of The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and part or in whole.