October 2017 32 By Bob Roloff, “The Arizona Duuude” Very few can say they are living their dream. Doing something that has consumed them from a youngster all the way to senior adulthood. For those of us that grew up watching westerns on TV and in movie theatres, the fifties and sixties were the best times, we loved it. For many, it would be a dream just to meet one or two of their Western heroes. Just think of having a job involving not only meeting your heroes but being on stage interviewing them. Well for Charlie LeSueur this is just what happened. Charlie got his start as an on-air personality at KCPX/ KTVX-TV the ABC affiliate in Salt Lake City. After eight years he moved to Los Angeles, California where he studied at the Lee Strasberg Drama Institute. He became a member of “Lonny Chapman’s Group Repertory Theatre” in Burbank as well as studying with the renowned “Off the Wall, Improve Group”. He also appeared in films, such as “The High Riders” and “Good-By Franklin High” and television programs for NBC including “Mark Twain’s America” and “Greatest Heroes of the Bible”. Charlie studied and graduated with a radio broadcasting degree from the Intermountain School of Broadcasting, which he used while broadcasting in Salt Lake City and during a very satisfying turn at KRIM Phoenix/Payson, with a format that combined country music with callers. Upon moving back to his home state of Arizona, he began producing, directing, writing, and hosting Phoenix based television programs such as, “At Home in Arizona”, “Chrome Highway”, “Dining Out in Arizona”, and “Hoover’s Place”. In 1991, while producing TV and radio commercials for the first year of Scottsdale’s “Festival of the West”, the festival’s producer, Mary Brown, was amazed at Charlie’s knowledge of the Western film genre. He was invited to become the host of the festival’s question and answer celebrity panel discussions the following year. Charlie hosted panels for 23 years with such stars as Lash LaRue, Rex Allen, Jack Balance, Ben Johnson, Harry Carey Jr., James Drury, Don Collier, George Montgomery, Peggy Stewart, Shirley Jones, director Burt Kennedy, Will Hutchins, Bruce Dern, Ernest Borgnine, Denver Pyle, Dennis Weaver, Peter Breck, Mickey Rooney, Buck Taylor, L.Q. Jones, Bruce Boxleitner, and his close friends, Alex Cord, and Robert Fuller. Wow, and this is just a few. Since then he has added many festivals in California, Nevada, Idaho, Arizona, Texas, and Oklahoma where he is the resident panel host for the annual Cowboy Way Mayfest at the Gene Autry Oklahoma Museum in Gene Autry, Oklahoma. Charlie will be the emcee at the Wild Bunch Western Film Festival in Wilcox, Arizona, from October 20th thru the 22nd. At the urging of Buck Taylor and Johnny Western, Charlie wrote his first book, “The Legends Live On, Interviews With the Cowboy Stars of the Silver Screen”, in 1999. Followed by “Riding the Hollywood Trail, Tales of the Silver Screen Cowboy”, in 2002. Then in 2015, Charlie published, “Riding The Hollywood Trail II, Blazing the Early Television Trail”. The Forward from Charlie’s book, “The Legends Live On”, by Johnny Western reads, “When you are reading my friend Charlie LeSueur’s book, I hope you will look fondly on those great days when our Cowboy heroes were everything to us. They formed our thoughts, our lives, and our dreams with their screen images. The horses with the silver saddles, the colorful clothes, and the guns and gun belts. The guitars and songs, and that certain look they all gave you from the screen that said to you, “Everything is going to be alright”. In recent years Charlie has reactivated his film and television acting career with roles in films such as “The Sum of Its Parts”, “Serial Blondes”, and “C-Bar”, as well as the Amazon Prime Program, “Mysteries of the Superstition Mountains”. Charlie appeared as a guest on the Nashville located RFD-TV’s Joey Canyon Show. In 2015 and 2016 he hosted the “ High Chaparral Old Tucson TV Reunion” live podcast. He has two film projects in pre-production, at this time, in which he carries on his streak of playing the villain. Charlie’s awards in recognition of his work include, “D.J. of the Year” from Rhon-Bob productions in 2007, a time in which he also recorded 5 country tunes that all hit #1 in Europe and Australia. There was an “Outstanding Performance” award at the Jerry Lewis Telethon back in 1973. Then in 2009, Charlie was awarded “The Spirit of the Old West Alive” award by LeeAnn Sharpe. This award is given to anyone that has devoted their lives to keeping the spirit of the Old West alive. He was honored in 2015 by having his footprints placed in cement and hung on the Apacheland Wall of Fame at the Superstition Mountain Museum. The American Legion of Cave Creek, Arizona, honored Charlie with the title of “Official Member” for his works. Most recently Charlie was awarded a “Fellowship of Western Spirit”, at Scottsdale’s Museum of the West, where he gives ongoing presentations on the Western film genre. Charlie lives in Mesa, Arizona with his wife Dawn, and is surrounded in the Valley by most of his seven children and 18 grandchildren. As Charlie often says, “I’ve had a truly blessed life”. You can follow Bob Roloff on Facebook. CHARLIE LESUEUR: ARIZONA’S WESTERN MOVIE HISTORIAN From left to right: Hanging out with some of the Warner Bros. gang at the Festival of the West in Scottsdale (left to right) Ty ‘Bronco’ Hardin, Clint ‘Cheyenne’ Walker, LeSueur, Peter ‘Lawman’ Brown; Signing his bootprint cement slab for the Apacheland Actor’s Wall, 2015; Getting ready to film an impromptu tour of Old Tucson during the 2016 High Chaparral Reunion Live Webcast.