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Fri 3 Jun, 2011 12:46 pm
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor James Arness, who personified the tall, rugged westerner as the star of "Gunsmoke," one of U.S. television's longest-running series, died on Friday at age 88.
According to a posting on his official website, Arness, a native of Minneapolis, died of natural causes.
He was best known for his 20 years on TV playing Matt Dillon, the U.S. marshal in the dusty wild-west town of Dodge City, Kansas, a role for which he was recommended by film star John Wayne.
I believe the first film I saw him in was One Minute to Zero, with John Wayne.
@edgarblythe,
dang.
and I just started watching him regular again...
Smoky does TVland all day, and the westerns are on most of the afternoon.
he was all about fair play, unless you shot at him. then you were done...
RIP marshall dillon.
I loved Gunsmoke, edgar.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qlLtvX4xOM
I recall as a kid watching him in The Thing From Outer Space. He was a vegetable
They recently started showing it here, on channel 55. I try to catch it when I can.
James Arness as Matt Dillon
Dennis Weaver as Chester Goode (1955–1964)
Amanda Blake as Kitty Russell (1955–1974)
Milburn Stone as Doc Galen Adams
Ken Curtis as Festus Haggen (1964–1975)
Burt Reynolds as Quint Asper (1962–1965)
Roger Ewing as Thaddeus "Thad" Greenwood (1965–1967)
Buck Taylor as Newly O'Brien (1967–1975)
Glenn Strange as Sam Noonan (1961–1974)
Sad. James Arness and his brother, Peter Graves, within 18 months.
Rap
@raprap,
raprap wrote:
Sad. James Arness and his brother, Peter Graves, within 18 months.
Yes, indeed. I hadn't known that Peter Graves was dead, too.
I'm just watching old Mission: Impossibles on DVDs at the moment.
He died at 83:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/15/arts/television/15graves.html
@edgarblythe,
I'm old enough to recall Marshall Matt Dillon &
Gunsmoke very well.
Though we in Oz received the series later than it was screened in the US, because television arrived here quite a bit later.
Dodge City would have been a terrible, lawless place without Marshall Dillon keeping order!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110603/ap_en_ot/us_obit_james_arness
@edgarblythe,
He also played the Monster in the original version of "The Thing".
I was steeped in the William Conrad radio version of Gunsmoke at first. Arness did not fit my mental image of the marshall. It took half of the first season before I could really accept him in the part. Nowadays, I watch the reruns if I get the chance.
@rosborne979,
You missed my post on that one, ros. I recall that he was a vegetable, and the only way that they could kill him is by electrocution.
The name of the movie was The Thing from Another World.
I only saw the James Arness Thing about fifteen years ago.
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