From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Red West (born 1936) is an American actor, film stuntman and songwriter. West was born Robert Gene West in Memphis, Tennessee, the son of Lois and Newton Thomas West. He was a close high school friend of rock and roll singer Elvis Presley. An excellent athlete and former U.S. Marine, West played football for his high school and junior college teams and was a boxer in the Golden Gloves championships. Today, he is probably best known to American film audiences for his role as Red in Road House, alongside Patrick Swayze. Description above from the Wikipedia article Red West, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia