Will Kane popular imagination: the gaunt, chiseled stone face, a stoic deadpan that rendered Cooper the leading-man, romantic-actor equivalent of Buster Keaton...By contrast, Skerritt saunters through the new "Noon" as if he were still the easygoing, ironic lawman of "Picket Fences"." Will Kane William "Will" Kane is the protagonist of the film "High Noon" (1952). He was first played by Gary Cooper, then by Lee Majors in "" (1980), and by Tom Skerritt in "High Noon" (2000), a remake for cable television. Gary Cooper originated the character in "High Noon" in 1952. Cooper briefly reprised his "High Noon" role in an uncredited
Will Kane gets cold feet, he tells him to go to his family, and then refuses the help of a teenager." Kane was also ranked by the American Film Institute as the fifth greatest movie hero of all time. Nevertheless, although Cooper's performance has received considerable praise as indicated above, Majors and Skerritt's performances have not been so positively received. "The New York Daily News" referred to Lee Majors as "sadly miscast" as Kane in the sequel. "Entertainment Weekly" also contrasted Cooper with Skerritt to Skerritt's disadvantage. Reviewer Ken Tucker reminisces upon "the all-purpose image of Cooper that's taken hold in the