Though maestros like John Ford, Howard Hawks, Anthony Mann, and Budd Boetticher had allowed for moral ambiguity in their movies, the vast majority of Westerns ... over the last 60-plus years.

The '60s were an age that saw Hollywood running dry on Western ideas, so they turned elsewhere for influence and found gold ...

Her love for the sport and skilled expertise ultimately helped her get cast in regular roles for several of the biggest Westerns of the 1950s and '60s, during which she was signed by Universal.