LAREDO STAR INFO
WILLIAM SMITH as Joe Riley

Laredo's Ranger JOE RILEY was an orphan raised by Indians.  [In “Meanwhile Back at the Reservation” he tells an Indian boy that although he’s not an Indian, he was raised by them.  He tells the Indian defendant in "Question of Guilt" the same thing.]  It was this childhood which helped him become the best tracker in the Rangers and made him deadly with the knife he always wore in a sheath on his pant leg.  He also had an eagle eye for long-distance rifle fire.

Although Laredo was the story of three Rangers (2nd season four) it was Chad and Joe who were the real team.  In fact, it was fortunate that William Smith and Peter Brown got along so well because their characters were essentially joined at the hip.  In most episodes they were in almost every scene together, especially in the first year.  Reese was often their foil, the butt of their jokes, the manipulated sucker or otherwise the comedy focal point.

Although in real life it was William Smith who was highly educated, in Laredo Peter Brown’s character Chad was the educated one who frequently used words Joe had to ask to be translated into English.  The show took advantage of Peter Brown’s excellent Spanish but left Joe with only his uneducated English despite the fact that in real life Bill is a master of many languages.  Joe was, however, the wild west equivalent of “street smart”.

Interaction with women was always fleeting on Laredo, but what there was went mostly to Chad or sometimes Reese and the Captain (and in year two, Erik Hunter) but rarely to Joe unless one counts his being the object of infatuation of the bloodthirsty Linda Littletrees..

Some descriptions of Laredo call William Smith a “gentle giant” but in fact he didn’t particularly stand out in size next to the wiry  6’ foot  Peter Brown and the 6’6” heavily built Philip Carey,  Although 6’2” with excellent musculature, Bill had slimmed down considerably from his previous body-builder days.  (He would bulk up again for his future biker films in which he would rarely be referred to as "gentle".)