James Arness passed away in his sleep last night at age 88. The 6’6″ actor had many credits, notably the classic sci-fi films The Thing and Them!, but he’ll always be best remembered for his portrayal of US Marshal Matt Dillon in the TV Western series Gunsmoke which had an incredible run of 20 years (1955-75) and 635 episodes. He later repeated the role in five made-for-TV movies filmed between 1987 and 1994.
By: Flying-A - 5th June 2011 at 01:38
Wikipedia has an excellent article on the complicated and fascinating history of Gunsmoke:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunsmoke
Milburn Stone (1904-1980), who played Doc Adams for the show’s entire run, was himself a native of Kansas and the old timers he knew as a boy were among the first white settlers of the Sunflower State. He played the real thing.
Dennis Hopper was a native of Dodge City and he guest starred in the 1965 episode “One Killer on Ice”.
One gauge of the show’s enduring popularity is that it is currently airing on two cable channels here in the States. TVLand has shown the hour-long color episodes from 1966-75 since its founding in 1996. The Encore Westerns Channel aired the hour-long black & white episodes of 1961-66 in 2002-05 and again since January 2010.
By: Sky High - 4th June 2011 at 11:59
And do you remember Dennis Weaver, who played Chester, as the terrified motorist in Spielberg’s first film, Duel? In fact, not being a great Spielberg fan, I think it is his best!!
By: Arabella-Cox - 4th June 2011 at 11:32
james arness
I recall “Gunsmoke “was originally titled “Gun Law” , James Arness was perfect as Matt Dillon and old Chester with his Gammy Leg Hollering “Mr Dillon Mr Dillon” great series and in a totally differnt world to todays TV,
By: Sky High - 4th June 2011 at 08:03
Great memories from the 50s and 60s – and just read that Miriam Karlin died yesterday.
By: tarkey - 4th June 2011 at 06:44
he’s gone to meet “Chester”
By: J Boyle - 4th June 2011 at 05:51
The Baron is also the only one of the three that’s still built.
Flying magazine recently tested (a highly optioned) one..it had a price of $1 million. Waaay too much for a piston twin, IMHO.
The reason light twins lost favour is that people finally realized that singles were just as safe…and the fact that Piper nor Cessna wanted to re-enter the market after the liability-depression of the 80s-90s.
IIRC, Piper still makes the Seminole (mainly) to flight schools for twin engine training. I don’t know if they sell many to individuals.
Arguably, a SE turbine does everything as well as a piston twin.
As nice as the Baron (especially the longer fuselage 58) is, I’d still love an early 310 so I could play Sky King.
One other celebrity Baron owner was Christopher Reeve.
BTW: Godfrey (a huge TV & radio personality in the 40s and 50s for our non-US friends) flying a Baron must have been a comedown..in his hayday in the 50s he had a DC-3 (supposedly fitted with larger engines…a gift from Eastern Air Lines) then he sold that for a F-27.
He also had a Navion and a Bell 47H (the little produced luxury version of the J).
By: Flying-A - 4th June 2011 at 01:42
He was also the owner/pilot of a Beech Baron in the 60s-70s.
Radio-TV personality Arthur Godfrey also owned a Baron in the seventies (and his seventies as well). Such owners may explain why the Baron had a certain cachet that the Aztec and the 310 didn’t have, even though they were fine planes, too. The Baron is also the only one of the three that’s still built.
By: J Boyle - 3rd June 2011 at 23:57
He was also the owner/pilot of a Beech Baron in the 60s-70s.
Don’t know how he fit in it being 6’7″.
RIP Marshal…
BTW: He was also the brother of Peter Graves, Captain Oveur from Airplane!.
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June 3, 2011 at 11:45 pm