I'd throw in another vote for Colt. The only one of their products I am in the market for was manufactured before almost every poster in this thread was born. Some stiff competition though.
I will give some credit to another manufacturer performing the inverse IMO.
The modern Henry. Using a historic name is a crap way to start a company with no real ties to the original. A few others out there did the same and many of the historic names have little tie to the original company besides a small amount of paperwork, but starting a company that way seems in poor taste to me. But they stuck to the lever gun until they became a real player. Refined it, made small incremental improvements giving customers options they wanted and built a firm healthy company off the stolen legacy. Recently they have started to branch out into some mechanically innovative products while maintaining classic aesthetics. Listening to customer demands and developing products to fill niches in the market without exceeding their competencies. Also, their new models tend to work when shipped. They keep it up and the modern Henry might surpass the historic in reputation.