The image of the Western cowboy lawman is so ingrained in American culture as to become cliched. But while Marshal Matt Dillon and Rooster Cogburn are the stuff of Hollywood and TV legend, Orange County Sheriff Brad Gates was the real deal. Gates died Friday, Oct. 25 in his San Juan Capistrano home after a long illness. He was 85. Endorsed by Western screen legend and later friend John Wayne, who knew a thing or two about lawmen on celluloid, Gates styled himself as an old-school law-and-order Sheriff. But he was also a supremely skilled politician. The 11th Sheriff of…