In 2003, on this day ageing fake Cowboy actor Richard B. Cheney began filming his final movie "The Bush Brothers Ride Again" in his native town of Jackson, Wyoming.

Cowboy Dick shoots his Last MovieA long but controversial career spanning forty years featured a few superficial similiarities to his character of "Cowboy Dick", especially the heavy drinking. Because in November 1962, at the age of twenty-one, Cheney was convicted of driving while intoxicated (DWI). He was arrested for DWI again the following year. Cheney said that the arrests made him "think about where I was and where I was headed. I was headed down a bad road if I continued on that course".

In fact Cheney had been born in Lincoln, Nebraska and his father was a government employee who moved the family to the blue-collar town of Casper in the 1930s.

And his raspy Marlboro Man tone was created by smoking three packets of cigarettes until a heart attack at the age of thirty-seven necessitated some moderation.

But despite the belligerent (and often pre-emptive attacks) on neighboroughing farmsteads, Cheney had no combat background, claiming that he had "other priorities in the sixties than military service".

He claimed to have received deferments to finish a college career that lasted six years rather than four, owing to sub par academic performance and the need to work to pay for his education. Initially, he was not called up because the Selective Service System was only taking older men. When he became eligible for the draft, he applied for four deferments in sequence. He applied for his fifth exemption on January 19, 1966, when his wife was about 10 weeks pregnant. He was granted 3-A status, the "hardship" exemption, which excluded men with children or dependent parents. In January 1967, Cheney turned 26 and was no longer eligible for the draft.

In fact Cowboy Dick did like to shoot, but at helpless small birds such as quails. Ironically, his acting reputation was ruined by an incident when he actually did finally shoot someone. Because on February 11, 2006, Cheney accidentally shot Harry Whittington, a 78-year-old Texas attorney, in the face, neck, and upper torso with birdshot pellets when he turned to shoot a quail while hunting on a southern Texas ranch, an incident ridiculed in the national press (pictured).

Fortunately for all concerned, health issues prevented Cowby Dick from following in the footsteps of Ronald Reagan or Arnold Schwarzneggar by progressing from a series of bad movies into acting out an arch-conservative political career.