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Mon 27 Feb, 2006 12:36 pm
AP
'Gunsmoke' Actor Dennis Weaver Dies
By BOB THOMAS, Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES -
Dennis Weaver, the slow-witted deputy Chester Goode in the TV classic western "Gunsmoke" and the New Mexico deputy solving New York crime in "McCloud," has died. The actor was 81.
Weaver died of complications from cancer Friday at his home in Ridgway, in southwestern Colorado, his publicist Julian Myers said.
Weaver was a struggling actor in Hollywood in 1955, earning $60 a week delivering flowers when he was offered $300 a week for a role in a new CBS television series, "Gunsmoke." By the end of his nine years with "Gunsmoke," he was earning $9,000 a week.
When Weaver first auditioned for the series, he found the character of Chester "inane." He wrote in his 2001 autobiography, "All the World's a Stage," that he said to himself: "With all my Actors Studio training, I'll correct this character by using my own experiences and drawing from myself."
The result was a well-rounded character that appealed to audiences, especially with his drawling, "Mis-ter Dil-lon."
At the end of seven hit seasons, Weaver sought other horizons. He announced his departure, but the failures of pilots for his own series caused him to return to "Gunsmoke" on a limited basis for two more years. The role brought him an Emmy in the 1958-59 season.
In 1966, Weaver starred with a 600-pound black bear in "Gentle Ben," about a family that adopts a bear as a pet. The series was well-received, but after two seasons, CBS decided it needed more adult entertainment and cancelled it.
Next came the character Sam McCloud, which Weaver called "the most satisfying role of my career."
The "McCloud" series, 1970-1977, juxtaposed a no-nonsense lawman from Taos, N.M., onto the crime-ridden streets of New York City. His wild-west tactics, such as riding his horse through Manhattan traffic, drove local policemen crazy, but he always solved the case.
He appeared in several movies, including "Touch of Evil," "Ten Wanted Men," "Gentle Giant," "Seven Angry Men," "Dragnet," "Way ... Way Out" and "The Bridges at Toko-Ri."
Weaver also was an activist for protecting the environment and combating world hunger.
He served as president of Love Is Feeding Everyone (LIFE), which fed 150,000 needy people a week in Los Angeles County. He founded the Institute of Ecolonomics, which sought solutions to economic and environmental problems. He spoke at the
United Nations and Congress, as well as to college students and school children about fighting pollution and starvation.
"Earthship" was the most visible of Weaver's crusades. He and his wife Gerry built a solar-powered Colorado home out of recycled tires and cans. The thick walls helped keep the inside temperature even year around.
"When the garbage man comes," Jay Leno once quipped, "how does he know where the garbage begins and the house ends?"
Weaver responded: "If we get into the mindset of saving rather than wasting and utilizing other materials, we can save the Earth."
The tall, slender actor came by his Midwestern twang naturally. He was born June 4, 1924, in Joplin, Mo., where he excelled in high school drama and athletics. After Navy service in World War II, he enrolled at the University of Oklahoma and qualified for the Olympic decathlon.
He studied at the Actors Studio in New York and appeared in "A Streetcar Named Desire" opposite
Shelley Winters and toured in "Come Back, Little Sheba" with Shirley Booth.
Universal Studio signed Weaver to a contract in 1952 but found little work for him. He freelanced in features and television until he landed "Gunsmoke."
Weaver appeared in dozens of TV movies, the most notable being the 1971 "Duel." It was a bravura performance for both fledgling director
Steven Spielberg and Weaver, who played a driver menaced by a large truck that followed him down a mountain road. The film was released in theaters in 1983, after Spielberg had become director of huge moneymakers.
Weaver's other TV series include "Kentucky Jones," "Emerald Point N.A.S.," "Stone" and "Buck James." From 1973 to 1975, he served as president of the
Screen Actors Guild.
Weaver is survived by his wife; sons Rick, Robby and Rusty; and three grandchildren.
First Don Knotts, now Dennis Weaver. The curtain's coming down on a classic era of TV...
I remember a tv movie he did where he was strung out on cocaine. I'll never forget it because it showed a whole other side of him as an actor and it was quite impressive. Damn, he hosted alot of the movies on the Western cable station. There was something so comforting about seeing him there and hearing that unmistakable voice of his. He will be missed.
I'm not ashamed to admit the westerns channel is my favorite. He always seemed to have a little anecdote about some interaction he'd had with the star of the film. It provided a personal touch missing in so many other channels. He will certainly be missed by me.
Another good film was the one in which he was chased by an 18 wheeler. Can't recall the name of it. I believe it was an early Spielberg effort.
Duel was the film.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Duel
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Produced by George Eckstein
Written by Richard Matheson
Starring Dennis Weaver
Music by Lalo Schifrin
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Released 1971 (U.S. release)
Duel is a 1971 television movie directed by Steven Spielberg, written by Richard Matheson (this movie is based on Richard Matheson's short story of the same name.), starring Dennis Weaver and a Peterbilt 351 tanker truck. Duel was Spielberg's feature-length directing debut, following a well-received turn directing a segment of the anthology horror film Night Gallery. Initially shown on television, it was eventually released to cinemas in Europe.
Description
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
Duel is a thriller about a traveling salesman called David Mann, who is played by Dennis Weaver. Mann is driving to a business appointment on the back roads of the California desert. For no apparent reason, he is terrorized by a large truck, which repeatedly chases and attempts to run him off the road. The film consists of a cat and mouse struggle between the truck and Weaver's character. Throughout the film, the driver of the truck remains anonymous and unseen, with the exception of two separate shots where his arm beckons Weaver to pass him, and another shot where Weaver observes the driver's snakeskin boots. His motives for targeting Weaver's character are never revealed.
In reality, the truck driver was played by the late stuntman and character actor Carey Loftin.
Despite its simple plot, a low budget (only $375,000) and very short filming deadlines (originally 10 days), the movie maintains a high level of suspense due to Spielberg's taut direction and the script's refusal to resolve the central mystery of the driver. The film's success put the young Spielberg on the map in Hollywood, and enabled him to move beyond directing for television.
The truck, a Peterbilt 351, [1] [2] was chosen for its "face". For each shot, several people had the task to make it uglier, adding some "truck make-up". The car was also carefully chosen, a red 1971 Plymouth Valiant with an underpowered engine to signify the weakness of the David Mann character.
The script is adapted by Richard Matheson from his own short story. It may have been inspired by a 1947 episode of the old-time radio series Lights Out entitled "What the Devil", which had a similar plot but different resolution.
Analysis
Duel falls under the suspense genre, a format popularized by the late-director Alfred Hitchcock. In fact, much of the film's score, particularly the use of the rapidly driving violins, seems to resemble that of Psycho, one of Hitchcock's most popular films. It is often speculated that filmmakers use these genres as a means to express some underlying view or views about the world in which we live. We can certainly see this in episodes of The Twilight Zone where the protagonist is often a mere representation of ourselves caught up in some unexplained and often-inescapable circumstance. Is it no wonder that the author of the film's screenplay, Richard Matheson, was actually a recurring writer for such TV shows as The Outer Limits, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, and, of course, The Twilight Zone.
In fact, on some level, Duel seems to play around with the ideologies and concepts of the socially acceptable male versus that of the female. We can see this in our protagonist, who is appropriately named David Mann. While it may appear that he is representing the everyday man, he is just the opposite of what sociologist Janet Saltzman Chavetz believed (in 1974) to be the traditional male. He isn't tough, he isn't aggressive, he isn't proud, and more often than not, he allows his emotions to get in the way of the problem at hand. While very few women appear throughout the film - including his wife, a tomboy snake enthusiast, the waitress at a nearby restaurant - they all seem to be more controlling and more dominant than him. It's no wonder that his apologetic phone call to his wife pertains to his not speaking up for her when another man was supposedly hitting on her the night before.
Spielberg illustrates how our protagonist lacks this sense of manliness, despite his valiant efforts. The enormous truck that haunts him is simply a manifestation of all the things he has failed to overcome as a result of not "being a man." (Bear in mind, this is someone who children looked down upon and laughed at during a rather humorous scene in the film.) After several attempts to avoid and bypass the problem (the truck), it appears that it has just become far too powerful and overwhelming. With no other option, he must face the problem head on, as a man should. This, of course, is taken literally in the final scene as Mann has to resort to murder by staging a collision between his own car and the truck in order to lure both over a cliff, and presumably the driver also to his death. The smoke that had once blinded the protagonist from all life's possibilities has finally cleared and he is left feeling more in control than ever.
Spielberg knew how to communicate to his audience on both the observable and intellectual levels. Duel represents some of Spielberg's finest work expressing how our inner psyche can often manifest itself into much larger things (i.e. the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park.) Using the suspense genre, we are able to see how brilliantly Spielberg is able to weave together story with the art of motion pictures. Duel appeals to audiences for all of these reasons and will continue to remain a landmark film.
Trivia
* Spielberg has said in the past that he watches this film every time he is about to start a new project so that he never unlearns the lessons he taught himself in making it. However, on the DVD, he says he has not seen Duel for a while.
* Spielberg lobbied to have Dennis Weaver in the starring role because he admired Weaver's work in Orson Welles' Touch of Evil (source: DVD bonus material).
* Shooting was completed in 13 days (3 longer than the scheduled 10 days), leaving 10 days for editing prior to broadcast as the ABC "Movie of the Week" (source: DVD bonus material).
* The old couple that Mann flags down on the highway are the same actors who appear in a helicopter in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. (source: DVD bonus material)
* The groaning roar sound of the truck falling down the canyon is re-used in Jaws (source: DVD bonus material).
* There were several trucks used to "play the part of the truck", one of which has survived. [3]
* The "bumper" of the truck is clearly constructed of pieces of railroad rail. In conjunction with the multiple license plates and empty tanker, this suggests that the trucker is, in fact, a serial killer.
* The story Duel was inspired by a real-life experience, in which Richard Matheson was tailgated by a trucker on his way home from a golfing match with a friend. (Source: Death on Wheels [a book containing short stories involving vehicles, including the story Duel], in the notes that precede the story [on page 75]).
* Much of the movie was filmed in southern California's "Canyon Country," in and around Agua Dulce, California and Acton, California. In particular, sequences were filmed on Sierra Highway, Agua Dulce Canyon Road, Soledad Canyon Road and Angeles Forest Highway. Many of the landmarks from Duel still exist today, including the tunnel, the railroad crossing and Chuck's Café, a place where David Mann abruptly stops for a break. The building, now a French restaurant, still sits on Sierra Highway.
I saw the making of Duel
I liked the way Spielberg pointed out his own reflection in the telepone booth that weaver has to run from before the truck squashes it flat. Apparently weaver did the stunt himself and they only got one chance at it. I think it adds something that you catch glimpses of a young Spielberg in there - (he also points out that you can see him in the back of the car a couple of times).
My favourite Speilberg film.
I'm sorry Dennis Weaver has died. He seemed like a very intelligent and thoughtful individual.
The triad is complete. Barney Fife, Darren McGavin, and now Dennis Weaver.
Edgar,
I was thinking the same thing and couldn't remember the name of it either. I remember Dennis standing on the edge of that cliff after the 18 wheeler went over it. He was awesome throughout that movie. You actually felt the fear that man was going through. The movies where you don't actually see the "killer" are the spookiest!
I loved McCloud too. Dennis was a natural for that one.
Seems like these kind of things do happen in threes; Don Knotts, Darren McGaven, and now Dennis Weaver.
Rest in peace gentleman, and thanx for sharing your talent with the world!
This may seem a little harsh, but I've always felt that Dennis Weaver deserved to die.
He wasn't one of my favorites and I have long considered McCloud to one of the worst tv shows ever made.
I didn't watch McCloud. I often will like an actor, but ignore some of their work, because it is to me substandard. He also did a series called Kentucky Jones, which I didn't care for.
I was 7 when Duel aired , And I can clearly remember both watching it, and then discussing it on the playground the next day. It was a powerful movie. I saw it recently, about six months ago, and it still held up.
I saw it when it first aired but don't remember it as well. My brother use to talk about it tho. In a good way.
gustavratzenhofer wrote:The triad is complete. Barney Fife, Darren McGavin, and now Dennis Weaver.
I know, this is really upsetting to me.
The movie Duel scared the Bejesus out of me when it first aired.
One little trivia thing.....when Weaver was in the diner, sitting at the counter, he orders a cheese sandwich. I remember thinking "how strange, you really don't see people ordering cheese sandwiches"
Weaver was a vegetarian, and apparantly insisted he order that, rather than a hamburger or something.
I read Weaver's stories of childhood poverty - eating grease sandwiches because it was all he had.
edgarblythe wrote:I read Weaver's stories of childhood poverty - eating grease sandwiches because it was all he had.
Wow. Elvis ate them when he had millions!
"DUEL" telemovie trivia!
I don't believe a lot of people know this detail... The short story "Duel", actually made its first appearance as a fiction article in...PLAYBOY magazine! I know this for a fact, 'cause I sometimes swiped my dad's copy (hidden in his closet), to peruse. When I was caught by Mom finding MY "secret stash", my defense was the cliche' , "I was reading the articles!" About to get spanked for lying, I hollered, "Did you read the cool story about a guy getting chased by a crazy truck driver?!" Dad laughed uproariously, told my mom he had...the happy ending: No spanking for me, and I was given full parental permission to read PLAYBOY from then on- (after my dad finished each issue)!
-ksmyaz3
P.S. Almost forgot to mention: I was eleven years old at the time! :wink:
Uh, Gus, has anyone ever asked you if you had DID?
Dissociative Identity Disorder. It's the new name for MPD (Multiple Personality Disorder). 
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