It’s a sad day for ‘Bounty Law’ fans. Rick Dalton, the actor who rose to prominence for playing Jake Cahill in the popular western series, died today at the age of 90. If you believe Quentin Tarantino, that is.
Tarantino’s official Twitter account and Roger Avary’s Video Archives podcast have announced the news that the fictional actor, played by Leonardo DiCaprio in “Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood,” is no longer alive in the universe. of Tarantino films.
“Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood” covered a transitional period in Dalton’s career, when he was no longer a viable movie star in America and was reduced to making regular TV commercials as a “heavy” that the heroic main characters could defeat . He spent most of his time with his best friend and longtime stuntman Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), who stuck by his side even after the stunt opportunities dried up. Eventually he hit rock bottom and was forced to move to Rome for six months to make spaghetti westerns and spy films—which, as Cliff pointed out, wasn’t the “fate worse than death” that he seemed to think it was. With the help of his agent Marvin Schwarz, he was able to work with the likes of Sergio Corbucci and establish himself as a major star of Italian cinema in films such as ‘Kill Me Quick, Ringo, Said the Gringo’ and ‘Operazione Dyn-O”. -Acaro!” He met his wife Francesca during the trip and eventually the two returned together in Los Angeles.
Upon returning, he memorably got into a fight with members of the Manson family when they inadvertently broke into his home while pursuing his neighbors, Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate. She finally saved the day by pulling out a flamethrower that he used as a prop in an old movie and setting several of them on fire to death.
Tarantino has always gone out of his way to share details of Dalton’s intricate backstory, so it’s not particularly surprising that he knew exactly when the character would die. Lui expanded on Dalton’s story in his novelization of the film, revealing that Manson’s accident revived Dalton’s celebrity status. The character became a regular on ‘The Tonight Show’ and began booking bigger acting jobs on shows like ‘Mission: Impossible’ before retiring to Hawaii at the 1988 Hawaii International Film Festival.
Dalton is survived by his wife, Francesca. There is no news on the status of Cliff Booth.
