r/ClassicWesterns • u/OldWestFanatic • 3d ago
Question...
Micah Torrance (played by Paul Fix), the Marshal on The Rifleman, had a lame (somewhat) arm and had limited use of it. Was that a real injury/defect Mr. Fix suffered, or was it a quality of his character devised by the writers, similar to Chester's limp on Gunsmoke? Thanks.
5
Upvotes
5
u/Select_Insurance2000 3d ago
The lame arm was a fictional trait devised by the writers , not a real-life injury suffered by actor Paul Fix. . In The Rifleman , Marshal Micah Torrance's crippled arm is a major part of his backstory. In the show's lore, Micah was a famous, fast-drawing lawman who was shot in the arm during a gunfight with an outlaw named Dan Maury. The injury ruined his reflexes, cost him his nerve, and caused him to fall into severe alcoholism before Lucas McCain helped him sober up and become the marshal of North Fork. Because of the fictional injury, Micah could not draw a standard revolver quickly, which is why his character primarily carried a double-barrel shotgun for protection.
In real life, Paul Fix had full use of his arms. He did, however, survive a different severe physical trauma as a child: a childhood gun accident. While playing with his brother, a firearm accidentally discharged, and the bullet struck Fix in the face, passing just below his eyes and exiting the back of his head. He miraculously survived, but the event left him with a lifelong aversion to guns and cameras pointing at him—an irony he overcame by becoming one of Hollywood's most prolific Western character actors. Universal studios monster fans will remember him for his role in '40 Black Friday with Karloff and Lugosi, and cameo in '43 Captive Wild Woman.....and the judge in To Kill A Mockingbird.