Gordon Dean (Letters, March 18) mentioned Elisha Cook Jr's various methods of demise in film roles, notably his spectacular dispatch in the classic western Shane after failing to outdraw hired gunfighter Jack Palance.

He was shot, sending him sprawling backwards in the mud near Grafton's Store. A great moment of the film.

Shane starred Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur, Van Heflin and youngster Brandon de Wilde, whose heart-rending cries of: "Shane, come back, Shane. Shane, come back," as he rode away into the hills at the end of the film will echo on forever.

-Roy Jameson, Keymer Avenue, Peacehaven