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Contrary to popular belief, John Wayne was never offered the role of Marshal Matt Dillon
The most enduring rumor in the West.
Rumors have long persisted throughout Gunsmoke's run that originally, the leading Western man John Wayne was inches away from portraying the lead character of Marshal Matt Dillon in the series' original televised run. Today, we're attempting to put that rumor to rest, with some evidence straight from the source.
According to a TV Guide article exploring the series, those involved in the production actually addressed these rumors. Norman Macdonnell, who had a hand in the creation of the Gunsmoke radio program and later became a producer on the series, was able to shed some light on why it simply wouldn't have been logical for someone like Wayne to begin a television career.
Macdonnell said, "Wayne was a big movie star and wouldn't have considered TV for a minute." He even ventured as far as to have said, "It was just a publicity story."
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Charles Marquis Warren, who helped develop Gunsmoke for television, also spoke up, utilizing the opportunity to both dispel the rumor and speak highly of Matt Dillon's actor, James Arness, whom Warren had worked with previously.
He said, "I hired James Arness on the strength of a picture he'd done with me... I never thought for a moment of offering it to Wayne. But to this day, even some of the cast go around repeating that story."
This doesn't mean that Wayne had nothing to do with Gunsmoke at all. Viewers might recall that he provided the opening narration to the series' first episode, but in addition, he also was the one who guided Arness into taking the role of Dillon in the first place.
Warren stated, "At the last minute, he [Arness] decided being on the little screen might not lead anywhere and he asked his friend Wayne to help get him out of his contract. Wayne not only advised Arness to take the show but volunteered to give it a send-off."
So, it turns out that James Arness was always destined to be Marshall Matt Dillon, and for good reason, too.
8 Comments
My wife is a huge fan of John Wayne and loved seeing that intro! You are right, it is pretty cool.
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However, perhaps the most unsung role Wayne ever had was in the movie "The Barbarian and the Geisha". In it, Wayne portrayed Townsend Harris, who was the US's first Consul-General to Japan and helped to negotiate the first trade treaty between Japan and another nation. Harris is still held in high esteem in Japan to this day. Harris has ties to my area because he was born in Hudson Falls NY (where I used to live) and a plaque dedicated to him is in front of Hudson Falls Village Hall. In fact, it was now late Kingsbury Town Historian Paul Loding (Hudson Falls is part of Kingsbury) who first told me about the movie and I got a chance to see it on The Family Channel (now Freeform). I can only hope that one of these days FETV will show it on its "John Wayne Matinee" they have on Sunday afternoons.
, I love him too, I wish me tv would notify us when they restart it again, I didn’t know about Wayne opening up the first episode, I would like to hear it thanks for this story about gun smoke, when I miss a day, I’m not happy, even though I’ve seen it all many times love ❤️ watching it it’s nice to read the different stories about the shows you have on!