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Actor / WW2 veteran James Arness has passed away. He was 88.

 

He was sheriff Matt Dillon on the TV series Gunsmoke.

He was also a WW2 veteran, having fought at Anzio Italy & received a Puple Heart.

 

I grew up watching reruns of Gunsmoke with my dad. Sheriff Matt Dillon took absolutely no shit from anybody.

That was back when there was good stuff to watch on TV.

 

RIP Mr. Arness

Edited by VULCANGUNNER
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I'm a huge fan of Gunsmoke. I even got my wife totally into it. My Mom got me an autographed 8x10 framed photo of James Arness as Dillon for my birthday a couple of years ago. I will be setting it in a prominent place this weekend and marathoning Gunsmoke. Thank you Mr. Arness for your service to this country and for all of the great Gunsmoke adventures.

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Many are not aware that James Arness was a surfer. He hung out with the legendary Hawaiian surfers on the westside of Oahu and is the father of 1970 Surfing World champion Rolph Arness.

 

RIP James

Edited by Jetmech
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We all have to go sometime but he will be missed. I watched that show as a kid with my dad and throughout my adult years it was great family entertainment for sure. Man as I get older I am watching all the celebs from my time pass away and it really sinks in how time moves so fast. I can remember those days as if it was yesterday but it was over 40 years ago. We just lost another good guy so RIP Jim.

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Or if you lived in the country, it was a big honking antenna and one channel. We got a rotator for the antenna in the early sixties and then we had three channels plus "educational TV," which we only watched when made to at school. 'Course, the downside of three channels was in those days kids were the remote. Watched Gunsmoke quite a bit after we got the rotator so we could tune in other stations. In those days there were Wagon Train, Cheyenne, Sugar Foot, Bonanza was a late comer, but Sunday night was Walt Disney followed by Bonanza. Disney had all sorts of cool stuff like The Swamp Fox, Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone etc. I guess I'm dating myself, huh?

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Betcha didn't know that his brother is Peter Graves from "Mission Impossible", that he played the "Thing" creature (in the original) and that John Wayne turned down the Matt Dillon part and referred James Arness instead, and introduced him in the first episode

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