Ken Kincaid

Ken Kincaid, 71, retired actor, Edgewater Beach

At the age of 20 years old, a neighbor of mine, name of Randolph Scott, got me into movies. I was in films for 30 years. Did 40 films and multiple episodes in all 17 of the major Western TV series.

I was a bad guy half the time. I was posse half the time.

I worked with some of the major actors of the good ol' age: Charles Bronson, John Wayne, Anthony Quinn, Jimmy Stewart, Greg Peck, Maureen O'Hara.

Leonardo DiCaprio. I think he'd fit in. He's a true actor.

I never really tried to get any higher than supporting actor because, I guess maybe because a lot of the big stars I had no respect for at all. Once they made it, some of the things that they did. 'I'm all this powerful. I'm all this rich.' I didn't want that happening to me.

The best Western ever made was "Shane." The best one I was ever in was "Cheyenne Autumn." I was one of the cavalry.

Charlie Bronson shot me in "Chato's Land." I was shot by Cameron Mitchell in the second film I ever did. I was robbing a bank. Michael Landon shot me in "Bonanza." I was shot by the Virginian in "The Virginian." I went to prison in "The Big Valley." Jimmy Stewart shot me. Gregory Peck, he only wounded me when he arrested me.

I would do like most of the guys -- I would get shot and fall right there over the water trough or fall right where I was shot. The movies do not depict a true shooting.

I came to Chicago in '87 for a week to visit my sister. On the fourth day I was here, I decided to run an errand for her, and I got my guts shot out as a thank you at Berwyn and Broadway.

A man stepped out from across the street, just wanting to kill someone. Yelled at me, 'Hey, cowboy, I have something for you!' When I came out of a coma five weeks later, I found out what he had for me. A soft-nosed, hollow-point .38 bullet.

It felt like somebody hit me in the belly with a baseball bat.

It threw me about five feet, I guess, backward, against the wall. Anybody who thinks these movies, where you get shot where you were standing, that's a bunch of bull.

I consider myself quite fortunate. And because of that, I like to share my fortune. I do not have any money to share, but what I share is my good fortune that I'm alive. I try to help children so that one day they'll come up and say, 'I'm a cancer survivor.'

I am a true Kiwanian and help children all over the world. I collect can tabs to help the cancer-stricken children. I go through McDonald House. I've probably collected a million and a half tabs.

I haven't had a drink in 29 years. It makes it quite nauseating. But I bypass that with the fact of how much good I'm doing with each tab I collect.

I've actually had gang-bangers protect me. I asked one why. And he said, 'Well, whenever we see you, you've got your nose in your own business, not ours.'

Charlie Bronson -- for a little runt, that man was very powerful. He was sincere in everything he did. A true actor, a true gentleman.

I've learned morals, honesty -- and how to spot people that didn't have those traits.