Obviously, all the ladies loved Frank Cannon

"It is totally confusing to me. But I accept the responsibility."

CBS Television Distribution

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and this beholder is telling you that it's high time we all start appreciating William Conrad for the hunk that he is.

What other dreamboat could give us characters like the original Marshal Matt Dillon, who Conrad voiced in the radio series Gunsmoke? Lest we forget Frank Cannon of Cannon, the private eye that captured the hearts of audiences everywhere.

Don't buy it? We've got proof. According to an interview with the Newhouse News Service, William Conrad actually won an award for sex symbol of the year while on a trip abroad in Germany. "Yes, I've been a sex symbol for years," Conrad said. "Actually, it is totally confusing to me. But I accept the responsibility."

Confusion aside, numbers simply don't lie, and the article reported that Conrad's series, Cannon was overwhelmingly popular with the female demographic.

Conrad also spoke on this very important matter in the Beckley Post-Herald & The Raleigh Register. There, he still seemed surprised by the warm response to his character, but appreciative, nonetheless.

"I'll have to admit I wasn't quite prepared for the type of public response the character of Frank Cannon has received during the first season of Cannon on the CBS television network," he wrote.

Conrad also reasoned that the appeal of Frank Cannon was in the realism of the character. "I guess Cannon is the kind of guy that a lot of people can identify with: a nonglamorous, rather portly private eye who has a weight problem and doesn't always outwit the villain," Conrad wrote. "And for some unaccountable reason, these same qualities seem to make him a favorite of the ladies too."

While it seemed that Conrad never fully understood his appeal, audiences everywhere, especially of the feminine variety, seemed to love him anyhow.

Watch Cannon on MeTV!

Weeknights at 3 AM

*available in most MeTV markets
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13 Comments

Mark 3 months ago
Lynda Day George admitted that the only man who came close to her husband Christopher was William Conrad.
JERRY6 5 months ago
he was great as Canon, still watch the show when I can
tootsieg 5 months ago
Cannon loved women, was a great cook and knew all the best restaurants. Can’t beat that.
Bapa1 5 months ago
The ladies liked him as the narrator on The Bullwinkle Show.
JHP 5 months ago
the show - I watch it 3/4 times a week - I like it a lot:)
justjeff 5 months ago
...and this is why the producers of the TV version of Gunsmoke dropped the ball when the felt that Conrad was "too short, fat and bald" to be Matt Dillon...
ElizabethBoop justjeff 5 months ago
Maybe they were just trying to avoid charges of animal abuse. That poor horse....
justjeff ElizabethBoop 5 months ago
You're assuming that Conrad's weight was too much for the horse because he was short. James Arness was over 6 feet tall, but weighed 235 pounds. Conrad weighed 260. I don't think the 25 pounds differential would have made that much of a difference - and fat shaming is definitely *not cool*, nor funny... Many of us have dealt with weight issues over our lifetime.
LynCarrigan justjeff 3 months ago
Oh no. There is only one Matt and that is James Aeneas.
justjeff LynCarrigan 3 months ago
Perhaps for you, but not for me... and it's James Arness (or his birth name of James King Aurness), not James Aeneas...

I am a William Conrad as Matt Dillon fan and unshakable in that opinion...
GOOSEYGOOSE9 5 months ago
William Conrad replaced jack Webb at Warner bros studios.
Runeshaper 5 months ago
Conrad was an EXCELLENT actor, and the fact that his character in Canon wasn't perfect, made him only more likeable.
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