Will Kane In 1952, Gary Cooper won a Golden Globe Award and his second Academy Award for his portrayal of Will Kane. While "The Washington Post" refers to the character as "A Classic Role," "Entertainment Weekly" ranked the character fourteenth on its list of the top twenty "All-Time Coolest Heroes in Pop Culture" in April 2009. The magazine included him on its list because in ""High Noon", Gary Cooper's retiring lawman faces down a killer and his goons despite being deserted by the rest of the town." "Entertainment Weekly" went on to cite his most heroic move as when "Kane's last ally
High Noon a vicious outlaw whom Kane sent to jail, has been released and will arrive on the noon train. Miller's gang—his younger brother Ben (Sheb Wooley), Jack Colby (Lee Van Cleef), and Jim Pierce (Robert J. Wilke)—await his arrival at the train station; it is clear that Miller intends to exact revenge. For Amy, a devout Quaker and pacifist, the solution is simple—leave town before Miller arrives, but Kane's sense of duty and honor are strong. "They're making me run," he tells her. "I've never run from anybody before." Besides, he says, Miller and his gang will hunt him down anyway.