Bob Custer

Kentucky-born Bob Custer was an actual cowboy who left the range to perform in rodeo shows. Like many other rodeo performers, he found out that appearing in western films paid quite a bit more (and was much less dangerous) than bull-riding and steer-roping, and he began to gain popularity as a western star in a series of medium-budget films in the early and mid-'20s. Unlike many other cowboy stars, however, Custer branched out into other genres, using his real name of Raymond Glenn. He returned to making westerns in the late 1920s but the advent of talkies posed a huge problem for Custer: he choked when reading lines. This mike fright was compounded by the fact that he was working at the bottom of the food chain in Hollywood, in micro-budgeted oaters by cheapjack producers like Harry S. Webb and J.P. McGowan; the shoddy productions only served to magnify Custer's limitations as an actor. Consequently, he never regained the measure of popularity he had in the 1920s. He appeared in his last film in 1936.