James Arness
James Arness ( born May 26, 1923 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, † June 3, 2011 in Brentwood, California; actually James Aurness ) was an American actor who mainly smoking through his portrayal of Marshal Matt Dillon in the western series Colts was known.
Life
Arness served during the Second World War in the United States Army and was (1944 Operation Shingle, 22 January ) seriously wounded during the landing of the Allied forces before Anzio in Italy during the Battle of Anzio. His cinema career began in 1947 with a supporting role in The Farmer 's daughter next to Joseph Cotten, Loretta Young and Lex Barker. Arness was a close friend of John Wayne and played at his side in the film Big Jim McClain and 1953 in a supporting role in Wayne's the only 3D movie Hondo. Wayne it was who suggested him for the role of Marshal Matt Dillon in the U.S. western series Gunsmoke. Arness played the role for twenty years in a total of 618 episodes. That was the longest time on American television, in which an actor played the same role in the same series (the record was set in 2004 by Kelsey Grammer in the role of Dr. Frasier Crane in the series Cheers and Frasier ). For this purpose, Arness was awarded the honorary title Honorary United States Marshal, in recognition of his unique incarnation of the image and the traditions of the U.S. Marshals Service.
Although Arness is identified by the long-standing incarnation of the character of Marshal Matt Dillon primarily with Western, Arness starred in two well-known sci-fi or horror movies: The Thing from Another World and Formicula. As " The Thing " however, he was barely recognizable under the Alien mask. After the end of Gunsmoke Arness continued to play primarily in films and television series of the Western genre. These included eleven episodes of through hell west and five produced for television feature-length films continuation of Gunsmoke, which were produced between 1987 and 1994. A notable exception is the lead role as big-city cop Jim McClain in the crime series McClain 's Law, sixteen episodes were produced by 1981-1982.
James Arness was with a height of 2.01 meters, one of the largest series actor in a leading role. From the first divorced with Virginia Chapman ( 1949-1960 ) Arness had two sons and a daughter, who in 1975 took his own life. Since 1978 he was married to Janet Surtees. His brother was actor Peter Graves.