You probably saw that Rick Dalton just “died”. The Wikipedia article on the character mentions a dozen prototypes, among them George Maharis who actually did pass away a few days ago. Another is Pete Duel, a figure who (with Gary Lockwood, Audie Murphy, and others) is of particularly interest both to me and the friend I consulted about this entire Tarantino “mystery”. We bonded, in fact, over a shared interest in extreme minutiae and semi-forgotten personalities.