Any ordinary actor can read lines from a script. It takes a truly talented performer to read about a character on the page and bring them to life on the screen.

Of course, Dan Blocker was of the latter population of actors. Blocker didn't just play a character; he became them. Nowhere else is this more true than in Bonanza, where Blocker played Hoss Cartwright. Big-boned with a big heart to match, Hoss was a well-loved Cartwright brother on the series. However, according to an interview with The Macon Telegraph, he didn't start out that way.

Blocker explained that originally, Hoss served no greater purpose in Bonanza beyond delivering some lighthearted humor.

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"When I first started with Hoss, he was a one-dimensional character, a big nothing," said Blocker. "He was written in for comedic relief."

Of course, there's nothing wrong with a bit of humor, but Blocker wasn't interested in a one-dimensional role, and he couldn't stand to play a character lacking substance.

"I went to David Dortort, the Bonanza producer," said Blocker. "I asked him to let me change the character. 'People will laugh at this guy for one or two weeks,' I said, 'but after that, they'll tire of him.' Dortort agreed, and that first year it was a challenge to play Hoss Cartwright."

Challenging though it was, Blocker made great strides with the character, developing him so deeply that viewers could scarcely believe he was fictional.

I made him a multi-dimensional man with understanding and a gruff tenderness, with compassion and honest emotions," said Blocker. "I made him naive in his relationship with women because, after all, he's a big, ungrateful, not particularly handsome man. But I also emphasized his total masculinity and his innate gentleness. And I breathed much of my own personality. And the result is that I don't know where Hoss Cartwright begins and Dan Blocker ends."