X Brands
Encyclopedia
X Brands sometimes credited as Jay X. Brands, was an American
actor
of German
descent known for his roles in television series and some film
s. His best-known role was "Pahoo-Ka-Ta-Wah" ("Wolf who stands in water"), the shotgun-toting Indian
sidekick on the 1958 CBS western
series Yancy Derringer
, with Jock Mahoney
in the starring role. In 1956, Brands appeared in fifteen episodes in different roles on the syndicated
western series, Judge Roy Bean
, starring Edgar Buchanan
, Jack Buetel
, and Jackie Loughery
.
Although Brands was of Europe
an stock, his portrayals of American Indians, earned praise for their authenticity, as was also the case with Keith Larsen
, who was of Scandinavia
n descent. Brummett Echohawk, a spokesman for the Pawnee Indians, wrote a letter to Hollywood producers in which he commended Brands for his authentic performance and his ability at speaking the tribe's language.
Brands' unusual first name comes from his family's history. In the small German town where Brands' ancestors lived, there were two Jan Brands. One of them invented the middle initial "X" to distinguish himself. He became known as "X" Brands, and the name stuck on his descendants. Family tradition held that no one could use that initial until the previous "X" had died.
ran for 34 episodes from October 1958 through June 1959 and starred Jock Mahoney
in the title role. X Brands played "Pahoo-Ka-Ta-Wah", a tall Pawnee Indian who was Yancy's frequent companion and very useful in a fight with his double barrel shotgun. Yancy spoke normally to his friend, shortening his name to "Pahoo"; but Pahoo was silent throughout the series, communicating only with hand gestures.
, and the second remake of Beau Geste
(1966), in which he played "Vallejo".
His television appearances covered a similar time period. The series in which he guest-starred included Bat Masterson
, Gunsmoke
, Mission: Impossible
, The High Chaparral
, Alias Smith and Jones
, Bonanza
, Wagon Train
, The Rifleman
, and Broken Arrow
. While he did not always play Native Americans, or appear in westerns, the majority of his roles were of this type. For example, his episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
was called "The Indian Affairs Affair".
Almost always non speaking roles, in 1960, X Brands had a rare talking role on Bat Masterson
. The episode is highly sought after by his fans who want to see if he really can talk. He talks well. On 28 April 1960, X Brands talks in episode "Masterson's Arcadia Club", as Jeb Mitchell, trail boss. He had a decent size speaking role in the TV series Cheyenne
titled, "Massacre At Gunsight Pass". He played an Indian leader named Powderface. He also had a small talking role on an episode of Adam-12
where he played Officer Sanchez.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
of German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
descent known for his roles in television series and some film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
s. His best-known role was "Pahoo-Ka-Ta-Wah" ("Wolf who stands in water"), the shotgun-toting Indian
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
sidekick on the 1958 CBS western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
series Yancy Derringer
Yancy Derringer
Yancy Derringer is an American Western series that ran on CBS from 1958 to 1959, with Jock Mahoney in the title role. It was produced by Derringer Productions and filmed in Hollywood by Desilu Productions...
, with Jock Mahoney
Jock Mahoney
Jock Mahoney was an American actor and stuntman of Irish, French, and Cherokee ancestry. Born Jacques O'Mahoney, he was credited variously as Jock Mahoney, Jack O'Mahoney or Jock O'Mahoney. He starred in two television series, both westerns...
in the starring role. In 1956, Brands appeared in fifteen episodes in different roles on the syndicated
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
western series, Judge Roy Bean
Judge Roy Bean (TV series)
Judge Roy Bean is a syndicated American Western series starring Edgar Buchanan as the legendary Kentucky-born Judge Roy Bean, a justice of the peace known as "The law west of the Pecos".-Synopsis:...
, starring Edgar Buchanan
Edgar Buchanan
Edgar Buchanan was an American actor with a long career in both film and television, most familiar today as Uncle Joe Carson from the Petticoat Junction, Green Acres and The Beverly Hillbillies television sitcoms of the 1960s...
, Jack Buetel
Jack Buetel
Jack Buetel was an American film and television actor.Born in Dallas, Texas, Buetel moved to Los Angeles, California in the late 1930s with the intention of establishing a film career...
, and Jackie Loughery
Jackie Loughery
Jacqueline "Jackie" Loughery is best known as the first Miss New York USA and winner of the first Miss USA beauty pageant, in Long Beach, California. In 1952, she won the title only after a second ballot broke a first-place tie...
.
Although Brands was of Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an stock, his portrayals of American Indians, earned praise for their authenticity, as was also the case with Keith Larsen
Keith Larsen
Keith Larsen was an American actor, screenwriter, director, and producer who starred in three short-lived television series between 1955 and 1961.-Background:...
, who was of Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
n descent. Brummett Echohawk, a spokesman for the Pawnee Indians, wrote a letter to Hollywood producers in which he commended Brands for his authentic performance and his ability at speaking the tribe's language.
Brands' unusual first name comes from his family's history. In the small German town where Brands' ancestors lived, there were two Jan Brands. One of them invented the middle initial "X" to distinguish himself. He became known as "X" Brands, and the name stuck on his descendants. Family tradition held that no one could use that initial until the previous "X" had died.
Career
X Brands was born in Kansas City, Missouri. He appeared in ten films. The first was in 1956, the last in 1978. The most noteworthy of these may be Santee (1973), a western about a sheriff who adopts the son of the man he killed.Best-known role
The television series Yancy DerringerYancy Derringer
Yancy Derringer is an American Western series that ran on CBS from 1958 to 1959, with Jock Mahoney in the title role. It was produced by Derringer Productions and filmed in Hollywood by Desilu Productions...
ran for 34 episodes from October 1958 through June 1959 and starred Jock Mahoney
Jock Mahoney
Jock Mahoney was an American actor and stuntman of Irish, French, and Cherokee ancestry. Born Jacques O'Mahoney, he was credited variously as Jock Mahoney, Jack O'Mahoney or Jock O'Mahoney. He starred in two television series, both westerns...
in the title role. X Brands played "Pahoo-Ka-Ta-Wah", a tall Pawnee Indian who was Yancy's frequent companion and very useful in a fight with his double barrel shotgun. Yancy spoke normally to his friend, shortening his name to "Pahoo"; but Pahoo was silent throughout the series, communicating only with hand gestures.
Other notable roles
Brands always played a supporting role in films. His most noteworthy roles may be "Hook" in Santee, a 1973 western starring Glenn FordGlenn Ford
Glenn Ford was a Canadian-born American actor from Hollywood's Golden Era with a career that spanned seven decades...
, and the second remake of Beau Geste
Beau Geste (1966 film)
Beau Geste is a 1966 film based on the novel by P. C. Wren filmed by Universal Pictures in Technicolor and Techniscope near Yuma, Arizona and directed by Douglas Heyes. This is the least faithful of the various film adaptations of the original novel...
(1966), in which he played "Vallejo".
His television appearances covered a similar time period. The series in which he guest-starred included Bat Masterson
Bat Masterson (TV series)
Bat Masterson is an American Western television series which showed a fictionalized account of the life of real-life marshal/gambler/dandy Bat Masterson. The title character was played by Gene Barry and the half-hour black and white shows ran on NBC from 1958 to 1961...
, Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West....
, Mission: Impossible
Mission: Impossible
Mission: Impossible is an American television series which was created and initially produced by Bruce Geller. It chronicled the missions of a team of secret American government agents known as the Impossible Missions Force . The leader of the team was Jim Phelps, played by Peter Graves, except in...
, The High Chaparral
The High Chaparral
The High Chaparral is a Western-themed television series starring Leif Erickson and Cameron Mitchell which aired on NBC from 1967 to 1971. The show was created by David Dortort, who had previously created the hit Bonanza for the network...
, Alias Smith and Jones
Alias Smith and Jones
Alias Smith and Jones is an American Western series that originally aired on ABC from 1971 to 1973. It stars Pete Duel as Hannibal Heyes and Ben Murphy as Jedediah "Kid" Curry, a pair of Western cousin outlaws trying to reform...
, Bonanza
Bonanza
Bonanza is an American western television series that both ran on and was a production of NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430 episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series and still continues to air in syndication. It centers on the...
, Wagon Train
Wagon Train
Wagon Train is an American Western series that ran on NBC from 1957–62 and then on ABC from 1962–65...
, The Rifleman
The Rifleman
The Rifleman is an American Western television program that starred Chuck Connors as homesteader Lucas McCain and Johnny Crawford as his son, Mark McCain. It was set in the 1880s in the town of North Fork, New Mexico Territory. The show, filmed in black-and-white with a half hour running time, ran...
, and Broken Arrow
Broken Arrow (TV series)
Broken Arrow is a Western series which ran on ABC-TV in prime time from 1956 through 1958 on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. Eastern time. Repeat episodes were shown by ABC on Sunday afternoons during the 1959–60 season...
. While he did not always play Native Americans, or appear in westerns, the majority of his roles were of this type. For example, his episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is an American television series that was broadcast on NBC from September 22, 1964, to January 15, 1968. It follows the exploits of two secret agents, played by Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, who work for a fictitious secret international espionage and law-enforcement...
was called "The Indian Affairs Affair".
Almost always non speaking roles, in 1960, X Brands had a rare talking role on Bat Masterson
Bat Masterson (TV series)
Bat Masterson is an American Western television series which showed a fictionalized account of the life of real-life marshal/gambler/dandy Bat Masterson. The title character was played by Gene Barry and the half-hour black and white shows ran on NBC from 1958 to 1961...
. The episode is highly sought after by his fans who want to see if he really can talk. He talks well. On 28 April 1960, X Brands talks in episode "Masterson's Arcadia Club", as Jeb Mitchell, trail boss. He had a decent size speaking role in the TV series Cheyenne
Cheyenne
Cheyenne are a Native American people of the Great Plains, who are of the Algonquian language family. The Cheyenne Nation is composed of two united tribes, the Só'taeo'o and the Tsétsêhéstâhese .The Cheyenne are thought to have branched off other tribes of Algonquian stock inhabiting lands...
titled, "Massacre At Gunsight Pass". He played an Indian leader named Powderface. He also had a small talking role on an episode of Adam-12
Adam-12
Adam-12 was a television police drama which followed two police officers of the Los Angeles Police Department, Pete Malloy and Jim Reed, as they patrolled the streets of Los Angeles in their patrol unit, 1-Adam-12. Created by Jack Webb who is known for creating Dragnet, the series captured a...
where he played Officer Sanchez.
Film roles
| Year | Film Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1956 | Frontier Gambler (dir. Sam Newfield) | "Gregg" (uncredited) |
| 1957 | She Devil (dir. Kurt Neumann) | First Doctor |
| 1957 | Young and Dangerous (dir. William F. Claxton) | Motorcycle cop (uncredited) |
| 1958 | Escort West (dir. Francis D. Lyon) | "Tago" |
| 1959 | Gunmen from Laredo (dir. Wallace MacDonald) | "Delgados" (uncredited) |
| 1960 | Oklahoma Territory (dir. Edward L. Cahn) | "Running Cloud" |
| 1966 | Beau Geste (dir. Douglas Heyes) | "Vallejo" |
| 1971 | Captain Apache (dir. Alexander Singer) | (Brands' role unlisted) |
| 1973 | Santee (dir. Gary Nelson) | "Hook" |
| 1978 | Avalanche (dir. Corey Allen) | "Marty Brenner" |