The actor known for his role as Lt. Dan in 'Forrest Gump' uses his off-camera time to support veterans, first responders and their families.

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — Actor and longtime military supporter Gary Sinise has been honored for his work with veterans and their families.

The Congressional Medal of Honor Society’s Patriot’s Award was presented to Sinise this week in the Los Angeles area. It’s one of the organization’s highest honors.

Sinise, who is known by many for his role as Lieutenant Dan in "Forrest Gump," has been spending his time off-camera raising money for veteran groups, KABC reported Thursday.

The Sons of Katie Elder, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Giant. With such an extensive resume of classic Westerns, it’s easy to forget that Earl Holliman is best-known for playing Angie Dickinson’s partner on Police Woman. Looking back from age 92 with astonishing recall, he admits, "I can’t remember ever wanting to be anything other than an actor. I’d say, ‘I’m going to Hollywood and be a movie star.’ I just fell in love with what I saw up on the picture-show screen in Texas and Louisiana."

Tom Selleck believes the 30th anniversary of his popular big-screen western Quigley Down Under is worth celebrating, and knew exactly how he wanted to do it.

“I called a guy who restores antique firearms and had him restore an 1878 Colt revolver," Selleck says. That gun does not appear in the film, but Selleck thinks it’s the kind Quigley would have chosen. “If he owned a handgun, it would be a state-of-the-art double-action revolver...

It wasn’t so long ago that the West was the stuff of legends, a place where bandits and lawmen mixed it up in shoot-outs on Main Street and high-speed chases across the Plains. More than a century after they wreaked havoc, characters like Wyatt Earp, Wild Bill Hickock, and Calamity Jane are still household names; and the towns they haunted, well those are still around, too. Though more civilized than their earlier selves, the thrill of the American frontier lives on in the rodeos, cattle drives, and gunslinging battles that range from South Dakota’s Deadwood...

We can define the Wild West by both time and place. Geographically, it was that part of the United States of America to the west of the Mississippi River. Historically, it was the period in the latter half of the 19th century and the early 20th century.

Before the outbreak of the Civil War, a common expansionist political doctrine known as Manifest Destiny swept through the country. The principle, promoted by the United States government, said it was an inevitable and divinely ordained movement to claim and settle...

The Wild West provides some of the most enduring tenets of American mythology, perpetuated by film legends from Bronco Billy to Clint Eastwood. And no wonder: the lawlessness of the time provided plenty of drama, and the lonely windswept territories, mountainous and arid, provided the cinematic backdrop. The image is indelible: A lonely cowboy clopping across the plains. Cue the Ennio Morricone soundtrack. Ironically, the era that has provided more than 100 years’ worth of celluloid fantasies lasted only 30 years.