But the biggest reason Dennis Weaver said farewell to his most famous role was due to his fear of being typecast and potentially losing out on career-changing opportunities as a result. While his decision was risky, it ended up paying off for the actor.
Gunsmoke made Ken Curtis' Festus Haggen a series regular to replace Dennis Weaver's beloved Chester Goode after he left to pursue other acting opportunities. However, Curtis refused to return for the first made-for-tv Gunsmoke movie after its 20-season run because of a couple of serious disagreements with a producer.
The cast of Gunsmoke was able to get pretty chummy with each other during the show's twenty-season run, to the point where they felt like a family. Leading this cast of Western stars was James Arness, a man who was— apparently— as tall as he was kind.
' ” Arness, who remained close to Weaver after he left the series, praised him as a “really fine actor.” “We really liked each other a whole lot,” Arness said.
But the changing of the guard really happened in the Season 9 episode titled "The Prairie Wolfer," where Chester and Festus actually appear together. In fact, this particular episode had appearances from Matt, Kitty, Doc, Chester, Festus, Sam and Quint.
Festus' character was known, in part, for the nasally, twangy, rural accent which Curtis developed for the role, but which did not reflect Curtis' actual voice.
His stiff leg is just a character touch, thank goodness. However, I still get hundreds of letters asking if the limp is real. This is rather flattering to me as an actor." Sometimes, though, Weaver said that the fans wrote letters where they just assumed that the limp had to be real.
A: Matt Dillon (James Arness) and Kitty (Amanda Blake) never married during the series 1955-75 run, although close watchers of the show were convinced they had connected at some time. But in a 1973 episode, Matt had a brief affair with another woman, Mike Yardner (Michael Learned), while he had amnesia.
After Gunsmoke ended, Arness performed in Western-themed movies and television series, including How the West Was Won, and in five made-for-television Gunsmoke movies between 1987 and 1994. An exception was as a big-city police officer in a short-lived 1981–1982 series, McClain's Law, starring with Marshall Colt.
Unlike many television stars, Arness never took on too many characteristics of his most famous role, nor did Dillon become more like the actor. "As for the issue of the onscreen personality and the real person, there's no comparison, no way.
James Arness was the quiet type while he was away from his character, Marshal Matt Dillon. His Gunsmoke character was known for his strong moral code, sense of justice, and fairness, but off-screen Arness was known to limit personal appearances and interviews.
A list of Gunsmoke cast members in order of how many episodes they appeared in would start predictably enough. James Arness, who lead the series as Marshall Matt Dillon, was in all 635 episodes.
Who turned down the role of Miss Kitty on Gunsmoke?
But that was the reasoning behind Polly Bond's decision to refuse the part of Miss Kitty on Gunsmoke. The former Polly Ellis had recently married Tommy Bond, a former child actor most famous for playing "Butch" on The Little Rascals.
Festus was the character who took over after Chester left the show–he was played by Ken Curtis and was more typical of a western side kick–as a matter of fact he was kind of a western Barnie Fyfe (Andy Griffith) as the character was over exaggerated with the constant jangle of spurs and the hillbilly accent and the ...
Things all turn out for the best in the end. Festus helps save the Pugh family's welfare, Av Marie and Toby get married and plan to leave for California, and Dibble even gets up from under his tree, but the rest of the Gunsmoke leads have nothing to do at all.
Ken Curtis, a singer and actor who played the scruffy deputy Festus on the television series "Gunsmoke," died in his sleep on Sunday at his home. He was 74 years old. His death was attributed to natural causes, said A. C. Lyle, a producer at Paramount Studios. Mr.
The emotionally troubled Virginia Arness attempted suicide twice, in 1959 and in 1960. In 1975, Jenny Arness died of an apparently deliberate drug overdose. Two years later, an overdose that police deemed accidental killed her mother. Arness married Janet Surtees in 1978.
He was raised as a Methodist. Arness attended John Burrows Grade School, Washburn High School and West High School in Minneapolis. Despite “being a poor student and skipping many classes”, he graduated from high school in June 1942. He then enlisted in the United States Army to serve in World War II.
How old was James Arness in Gunsmoke to the Last Man?
Arness was almost 70 by the time this came out, and he was too old to be beating groups of guys in their 20's with fists and guns, but that was not the point of this film. The point was to give some old fans of an old TV show a taste of the past, and it does that job well.
In fact, they flirted, teased, hugged, and walked off with their arms around one-another, but they never kissed. But oh, those deep stares! Burgoyne explains, “They just had the eyeball routine, to keep it a mystery.
Following from Wikipedia — Miss Kitty was written out in 1974. The actress said she was tired and quit to protect the cast and crew she loved so much. When Blake decided not to return for the show's 20th (and final) season, the character was said to have returned to New Orleans.
What was the relationship between James Arness and Peter Graves?
Peter Aurness grew up with his older brother James in Minneapolis. The two boys both joined the Army in World War II and later fell into acting. James altered the family surname to Arness. Peter opted for a stage name from his maternal side, Graves.
Dennis Weaver left the series after episode 28, "Bently", and his role as Chester was replaced by Ken Curtis as Festus, although Curtis also appears in early in the season as another character in episode 2.
