Name a famous person who once appeared on "Gunsmoke"

[red dog 1]

Charles Bronson

[Walleye]

1. I spotted Jon Voight on one of the later ones in color. pre Midnight Cowboy

[Docreed2003]

2. Captain Kirk and Dr McCoy

[BlueGreenLady]

3. Wayne Newton

My 90 y.o. Dad still watches and I saw a baby faced Wayne Newton on Gunsmoke just yesterday.

[rsdsharp]

7. Wasn't that Bonanza? His father wanted him to work

not sing, and was shamed when he sang in a saloon, but it came out OK when he sang The Old Rugged Cross in church?

[BlueGreenLady]

10. Oh, You are right, my bad!

Should have been paying more attention.

[rsdsharp]

11. They tend to blur together after awhile.

[Arkansas Granny]

4. Burt Reynolds.

[doc03]

5. Beau Bridges

[gladium et scutum]

6. Glen Strange,

aka Sam the bartender, played the Frankenstein monster in four Hollywood movies.

[rsdsharp]

8. Morgan Woodward.

19 appearances.

[MarcA]

9. Adam West. Judy Carne. n/t

[msongs]

12. matt dillon and chester? nt

[Dave in VA]

13. Cicely Tyson and Yaphet Kotto

1970

[Brother Buzz]

14. Sam Elliott

Sans the mustache in 1972

[werdna]

15. Bernie Sanders and Noam Chomsky

Played an itinerant Medicine Show snake-oil merchant and his shill.

Oh wait, my bad. That was John Abbott ( https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0007995/mediaviewer/rm1647159808?ref_=nm_ov_ph ) and Strother Martin ( https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001510/mediaviewer/rm4130122240?ref_=nm_ov_ph ); I always get those guys confused.

[red dog 1]

22. Welcome to DU!

[Demovictory9]

35. lol... you are bad

[red dog 1]

48. Bernie Sanders For President in 2024!

Noam Chomsky? I don't think so.

[DFW]

55. In 2024?

I thought you said Gunsmoke, not Laugh-In

[red dog 1]

56. It won't be funny if the GOP wins!

[DFW]

58. It's NEVER funny when they win. n/t

[HoosierDebbie]

16. Jack Albertson nt

[njhoneybadger]

17. Moses?

[Archae]

18. Leonard Nimoy!

My Mom loved that program.

https://www.pbs.org/wnet/pioneers-of-television/video/leonard-nimoy-on-gunsmoke/#:~:text=Leonard%20Nimoy%20appeared%20as%20a,the%20Western%20series%20%E2%80%9CGunsmoke.%E2%80%9D

[Niagara]

19. Dennis Weaver ♥

And as you already mentioned, Charles Bronson. ?

[Just A Box Of Rain]

26. When I was ten years old

Dennis Weaver was the assistant coach of our Pop Warner football team. His son Rusty was a teammate.

[Niagara]

28. Thank for sharing this delightful history!

This doesn't surprise me at, Dennis Weaver excelled at football, basketball and track and field during his youth.

[Just A Box Of Rain]

29. He was very fast. I remember that. And lanky.

He like to run us in zig-zag drills, which he would demonstrate, and I was very impressed at his speed and ability to "cut."

Nice man.

[Demovictory9]

36. wow... was he already famous?

[Just A Box Of Rain]

38. Famous for having been on Gunsmoke.

This was post-Gunsmoke and immediately before "Duel" aired on TV (which of course we all watched).

He then won his starring role as McCloud, and he was too busy to assistant coach the team anymore.

I was glad for his success. A very nice man. Gentle and kind. And funny. And surprisingly swift.

[Demovictory9]

39. oh that's right. He had 60s fame, then 70s fame

[Just A Box Of Rain]

40. His 70s fame seemed greater to me.

With him having starring roles, instead of being a "sidekick," but that may be a reflection of my "in between" age.

Gunsmoke was definitely a big show.

[Demovictory9]

41. definitely. he was the star. show alternated with show about the Commissioner and his wife

[Auggie]

20. Slim Pickens. Several times.

[Kaleva]

23. Harry Morgan, Loretta Switt, Wayne Rodgers

[Kaleva]

24. Name the actor who appeared on Gunsmoke and was born in Dodge City, Kansas

[highplainsdem]

25. Dennis Hopper.

[highplainsdem]

43. Btw, the only reason I was able to answer your question, since I'm neither

a Dennis Hopper fan nor a Gunsmoke fan, is that I'd skimmed through Hopper's Wikipedia page recently because he'd been a supporting actor in a mediocre (that word's probably too kind) film, director Wim Wenders' The Palermo Shooting, which had starred Campino aka Andreas Frege, the lead singer of the German band Die Toten Hosen, whose music I discovered just recently and really like. I wanted to see if there was anything about the film on Hopper's Wikipedia page, but it was just barely mentioned, as one of the last films he'd done. He played Death in that film, which was released the year before he died.

Anyway, while skimming down the Wikipedia page I'd noticed both that Hopper had been born in Dodge City and that he'd been in Gunsmoke, and that had seemed rather amusing. I have no idea if anyone else in the long-running series had been born in Dodge City.

I don't know if you're a Dennis Hopper fan, but even if you are, I wouldn't recommend The Palermo Shooting, which got pretty bad reviews. The review in the Hollywood Reporter was the kindest to Campino (it noted that he was "very, very handsome" ) but it said at the end that the main question raised by the film, which had been meant to be very artsy and serious, was where Wenders kept finding people to invest in his films. Judging by the clips I've seen, it had a hopelessly bad script, which Wenders wrote. The best actors in the world couldn't have saved that script. I believe the film was released only in Germany, where I suppose some Toten Hosen fans might have made the mistake of going to see it (they'd've probably been happier with Campino narrating a travelogue of Palermo, which would have been more watchable), but I think it was shown only at one West Coast film festival in the US, with no theatrical release here.

Hopper had a supporting role the same year (2008) in Elegy, a much better film. Those were the last films he appeared in, though he provided the voice of a character in a computer-animated film released after his death in 2009.

[Kaleva]

45. There sure is a lot of interesting trivia & info on the Internet

I found that information about Dennis Hopper on a site that listed 60 actors and actresses who made appearances on Gunsmoke.

[highplainsdem]

52. Yes, there is. I think I found the site where you found that info, though I forgot to bookmark it

after doing that keyword search yesterday.

Think it was on MeTV's site, though I'm not sure. I do remember it mentioned Hopper being born in Dodge City as a "fun fact."

[yellowdogintexas]

27. Michael Warren (Bobby Hill on Hill Street Blues) and Charles Haid (Renfro on Hill Street Blues)

According to my mother who was a die hard Gunsmoke re-run fan, they played a pair of really bad dudes who ended up in jail in Dodge.

She had a sort of hobby of spotting "when they were young" actors on old TV shows

[malthaussen]

30. All of them.

During its run, just about everybody who was or aspired to be anybody appeared on the show.

-- Mal

[highplainsdem]

32. Seems that way, doesn't it? Some appearing as several different characters,

which is always weird if you remember the earlier appearances.

But it happens with long-running shows.

Ian McShane (one of my favorite actors; he was so perfect in Lovejoy) appeared at least twice in the original Magnum P.I., playing different characters.

[malthaussen]

33. Like Denis Franz in "Hill Street Blues..."

... his first appearance was so popular with fans they wrote a whole new character for him and made him a part of the ensemble.

-- Mal

[Demovictory9]

37. and they were all on the "Love Boat" or "Murder she wrote" too

[mentalsolstice]

31. Jodie Foster, several times. nt

[red dog 1]

49. Really? I didn't know that.

[mentalsolstice]

51. 3 times between 1969-72. nt

[whistler162]

34. James Arness's brother

Mr. Phelps this post will self-destruct in 15 seconds

[miyazaki]

42. Santa Claus

C'mon, just about every tv show had an X-mas episode, possibly with Santa!

[LuckyCharms]

44. Marshall Law.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

47. I see what you did there. NT

[Emile]

46. Bette Davis

[red dog 1]

50. No way, really?

[Emile]

54. Amanda Blake was scared to work with Bette Davis on Gunsmoke

https://www.metv.com/stories/amanda-blake-was-scared-to-work-with-bette-davis-on-gunsmoke

[red dog 1]

53. Anne Francis

[red dog 1]

57. Bruce Dern

[red dog 1]

60. Ronald Reagan

[red dog 1]

61. Richard Dreyfuss

[red dog 1]

62. Ed Asner

[red dog 1]

63. Harrison Ford

[red dog 1]

64. Beau Bridges

[red dog 1]

65. David Carradine

[red dog 1]

66. Robert Vaughn

[red dog 1]

67. Aaron Spelling

[red dog 1]

68. Loretta Swit

[red dog 1]

69. Harry Dean Stanton

[red dog 1]

70. Kurt Russell

[red dog 1]

71. Vera Miles

[red dog 1]

72. James Whitmore

[red dog 1]

73. Dennis Hopper

[red dog 1]

74. Darren McGavin

[red dog 1]

75. Lesley Ann Warren

[red dog 1]

76. Forrest Tucker

[red dog 1]

77. Jan-Michael Vincent

[red dog 1]

78. No one else likes this thread?

(Guesses are always welcome)

[red dog 1]

79. Jack Klugman

[red dog 1]

80. Nick Nolte

[red dog 1]

81. OK, I guess it's time to end this thread,

since no one but me seems to want to participate

Bye, Bye, Gunsmoke famous character thread.

[red dog 1]

82. Jerry Mathers

[red dog 1]

83. Suzanne Pleshette

[red dog 1]

84. Jerry Mathers

[red dog 1]

85. Ron Howard

[red dog 1]

86. Leslie Nielsen

[red dog 1]

87. Jon Voight

[VGNonly]

88. Tom Skerritt

Five times, different characters.

[red dog 1]

89. Good one!