Kurt Russell, Burt Reynolds, more to be honored at Oklahoma City's Western Heritage Awards

Kurt Russell, Burt Reynolds and the original "Pistol Pete" will be among luminaries honored in Oklahoma City at the 61st Western Heritage Awards.

The venerable OKC event annually lauds people who have made significant contributions to Western heritage as well as the year's top releases in Western literature, music, television and films. After shifting to autumn in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ceremony moves back to spring this year, with dates reserved for April 8-9 at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.

Russell and his father, the late Neil Oliver “Bing” Russell (1926-2003), will be inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers at this year's Western Heritage Awards.

Reynolds, who died in 2018, also will be ushered into the OKC-based Hall of Great Western Performers.

Known for his roles in Western films including "Tombstone," "The Hateful Eight" and "Bone Tomahawk," Kurt Russell, who will turn 71 in March, has starred in the movies "Escape from New York," "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2," "Overboard" and many more. He earned a Golden Globe nomination for best supporting actor for 1983's "Silkwood" and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy for portraying Elvis Presley in the 1979 telefilm "Elvis."

A prolific film and TV actor, Bing Russell is best remembered for playing Deputy Clem Foster on the beloved series "Bonanza" and Robert in the 1960 film "The Magnificent Seven."

The Russells were initially scheduled to be added to the Hall of Great Western Performers at the 2020 Western Heritage Awards, but the ceremony was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Their induction was delayed again for Kurt Russell to undergo hip surgery last September.

"I’m grateful to the museum for being willing to move our recognition to 2022 so I can be there in person to accept this great honor," Russell said in a statement last August.

Newly announced Hall of Great Western Performers honoree Reynolds, who died in 2018 at age 82, built a prolific 60-year career as an actor, director and sex symbol. He started with recurring roles on television shows like "Gunsmoke," "Riverboat" and "Hawk," and by the 1960s, the Michigan native was earning multiple roles in Western films and TV series. By the 1980s, he was a bona fide movie star, and he earned a 1998 Oscar nomination for his supporting role in Paul Thomas Anderson's "Boogie Nights."

Reynolds played memorable roles in a multitude of movies, including "Smokey and the Bandit," "Deliverance," "Navajo Joe," "100 Rifles" and "Sam Whiskey."

Hall of Great Westerners to add 'Pistol Pete' inspiration

Also during the April ceremony, Frank Boardman “Pistol Pete” Eaton (1860-1958) and Gerald Timmerman will be added to the Hall of Great Westerners.

The inspiration for Oklahoma State University’s mascot, Eaton earned the nickname “Pistol Pete” at age 15 when he went to Fort Gibson to hone his shooting skills. A tracker, scout and settler, he worked on ranches and herded cattle over the Chisholm and Santa Fe Trails. He later was a deputy U.S. marshal. He died April 8, 1958, at age 97 after settling in Perkins.

Timmerman and his brothers acquired their first feed lot from their father in 1970, eventually expanding to own multiple feed lots, farmlands and ranches in Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, South Dakota, Texas and Oregon. In 1995, they continued to expand, forging a partnership and starting a meat processing center that became one of the largest independent meat packers in Omaha, Nebraska.

In addition, this year's Western Heritage Awards will honor fourth-generation rancher and longtime National Cowboy Museum board member Linda Mitchell Davis with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Previous Lifetime Achievement Award winners include Country Music Hall of Famer George Strait and iconic actor Robert Duvall.

Jackson Hole, Wyoming-based investor, philanthropist and GOP donor Foster Friess, who died in May 2021 at age 81, will become just the second person to receive the Western Visionary Award at this year's Western Heritage Awards. The inaugural Western Visionary Award was presented in 2018 to Philip Anschutz, the Denver-based founder of The Anschutz Corp., one of the largest privately held companies in the United States.

Plus, James “Jim” F. Hoy, a Kansas author, folklorist and folk singer, will garner the 2022 Chester A. Reynolds Memorial Award, an annual prize named in honor of the National Cowboy Museum's founder.

“The story of the American West is alive, with people from all walks of life still contributing to the culture of the West we know and love,” said Natalie Shirley, National Cowboy Museum president and CEO, in a statement. “This year’s inductees and award winners include extraordinary men and women who influenced their communities and the world through their work and through the way they lived their lives.”

The 2022 Western Heritage Awards winners in the literature, music, television and film categories are expected to be announced soon.

More than 1,000 people attended the Western Heritage Awards last year. For more information, go to https://nationalcowboymuseum.org/western-heritage-awards.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC Western Heritage Awards: Kurt Russell, Burt Reynolds to be honored