Celebrity Biographies
James arness
James Arness especially succeeded as the tall, tough sheriff Matt Dillon who enforces the law at the border, in Gunsmoke , which happens to be the longest-running Prime Time drama on American television, no less than 20 years.
Arness died on Saturday, June 4, 2011, at age 88, of natural causes, despite previously being in relatively good health. “No illness, no discomfort, I just get a little tired,” he had recently commented.
James Aurness (his real name) was born on May 26, 1923, in Minneapolis (Minnesota). He made his film debut in 1947 with The Farmer’s Daughter , although his first great success was the film Hondo , where he accompanied John Wayne himself . He lavished himself on science fiction series B, as he was in the classics of the genre The enigma from another world -Where he was the monster- and The world in danger .
When the producers were preparing the Gunsmoke series , they thought that the ideal protagonist was John Wayne. But the star was embarking on film projects and rejected the offer, so James Arness was finally chosen to play Sheriff Matt Dillon. Dennis Weaver played his assistant Chester Goode. John Wayne came to pass through the series, as a guest, but also other greats such as Bette Davis , Bruce Dern , George Kennedy , Burt Reynolds and many more, over two decades of broadcast.
For Spaniards in their forties, James Arness will forever be Zebulon Macahan, a mythical character from the series The Conquest of the West (series) , trapper and patriarch of the leading family, who embodied the values of the first pioneers of the west.
It was one of his last jobs, although he also took up Sheriff Matt Dillon, in several telefilms. Divorced from series actress Virginia Chapman, with whom he had three children, Arness was married to Janet Surtrees from the late 1970s until her death.