THE CONAN WHO SHOULD HAVE BEEN ! by Dave Goode

 

I've got a very short list of actors who I think would have been great portraying Robert E. Howard's barbarian hero Conan of Cimmeria. There's Charles Bronson who may have been too short to play Conan. But may have been just right to play another of Howard's characters, the Pict king Bran Mak Morn. Then there is Jack Palance who was perfect as Attila the Hun in the movie SIGN OF THE PAGAN (1954). It was his performance as Attila that got me thinking that Palance would have been great as Conan. Or even better as King Kull,yet another of Howard's barbarian heroes. And then there's "Big" Bill Smith, the actor/bodybuilder best known for his roles in action flicks playing both heroes and villains.

Smith did play Conan's father in CONAN, THE BARBARIAN (1982). And most critics thought that his brief performance was the best thing about the movie. Ten or fifteen years earlier he would have been great as Conan himself. And in 1982 he would have been great as the older King Conan of Howard's stories The Phoenix On The Sword and The Hour Of The Dragon a. k. a Conan The Conqueror.

I imagine a younger Bill Smith starring in an adaptation of my favorite Howard Conan story Beyond The Black River. And he would have been equally good in A Witch Shall Be Born. Imagine if you will Vincent Price as the mercenary general Constanius the Falcon. And Barbara Steele as the twin sisters Queen Taramis and Salome , the witch of the title. But more importantly imagine Smith as the pantherish Cimmerian in the most famous scene from the Conan series. Fierce!!!