By Dick Russell Last August, enclosed by vermilion his wide-brimmed smile still brought cliffs and a cloudless sky, a towering to mind Gunsmoke’s lawman. He spoke, figure in fringed buckskins rode into a finally, of the two TV characters that cavalry camp and stopped beside a have made him (in the words of ex- wagon where an Indian was being held ecutive producer John Mantley) “the at gunpoint.“Hold on there! Put them most exposed man in the history of any rifles down!” he cried. Almost instantly, medium-there’s more film on Jim he was standing with a knife at the Arness than any other human being.” cavalryman’s throat, saying: “You give “Zeb Macahan,” Arness said, “came that order to fire, mister, and I’m gonna from an era when men were the law gut you neck to knees.” unto themselves. He was a free spirit, It was almost noon on a Kanab, made his own rules. He was used to Utah, location of ABC’s How the West taking everything over and not con- Was Won series. James Arness, after sulting anybody. Except that after the 20 years as Gunsmoke’s Marshal Matt Civil War-the stage we’ve got him at Dillon, had begun filming for his third now-it’s more civilized times and he’s season as mountain man Zeb Macahan. running into a little trouble. Now he donned a pair of sunglasses “Matt Dillon,” he continued, “was and hastily began to remove a thick the opposite-a guy who not only had brown mustache, his day’s work al- to see that the laws were carried out, ready complete.“This is good livin’, but live by them himself. He had to do isn’t it?” he said, turning to the crew the right thing. As a consequence, he and offering a high-pitched cackle of always had to hold his own personal a laugh. Then favoring a limp that has feelings or desires in restraint.” plagued him since he was hit by a burst For most of his life, consciously or of German machine-gun fire at Anzio not, James Arness has sought a life Beach, he walked with a rolling gait style that embodies the qualities of toward his waiting camper. those two Western archetypes. Part of Inside, his companion for the past him, like mountain man Macahan, has five years-32-year-old Janet Surtees, always been a roving spirit. Even ‘in an attractive dress-shop owner whom his Minnesota youth he was hopping he would make his bride in December freight trains, shipping out on an ocean -was waiting with her young son, freighter, working in a logging camp. Jimmy. Bending his 6-foot-6-inch Later, as Gunsmoke’s success turned frame, Arness reached for a “slug-a him into a multimillionaire, he still water,” then sat down. found his release in sailing, surfing, Now, giving his first and only inter- skiing and flying. view of the new TV season, Arness Yet, if one side of Arness is a man began by talking of this Utah location, of the open spaces, another part has and about a time years ago when he’d seemed bound to a ‘rigid personal code watched an old actor on horseback that largely avoids press or public or plunge four feet “into this crickbed of any open space at all. Even from cast quicksand here“ before the crew could parties he has kept his distance. His rescue him. Sometimes, as he went on longtime actor friends, who can re- to speak of visiting nearby Indian ruins count numerous anecdotes about Ar- and fishing on Lake Powell, he’d draw ness as a practical joker and a bawdy out his words-“Surrre,oh yeaahhh”- storyteller, don’t readily recall many perhaps as his own Norse grandfather personal moments of a more serious had done in the. old country. nature between them. While he’s re- At 55, Arness’s face was branded garded as being intensely loyal to his now with crisscrossing lines that evoked co-workersonce the day’s work is done i an old man of the mountains, just as Arness will retreat alone to his + TV GUIDE FEBRUARY 24, 1979 19 continued sprawling ranch outside Santa Barbara. initial attitude apparently left a lot to be The contrast between the gregarious desired. “We didn’t get along too well Arness and the man once labeled as in the early days,”remembers Milburn TV’s version of the reclusive Garbo is Stone, Gunsmoke’s Doc Adams. “He shown by an incident that occurred used to annoy me, because at rehearsals some years back, on the occasion of he’d sit there and whistle or make all refilming Gunsmoke’s opening shoot- kinds of silly noises. So one time I out sequence in living color. Vincent started in .on him really screaming and McEveety, the director that day, recalls: yelling. Jim’s got a frightening habit “Jim steps out into the street, draws in such circumstances. When he gets his gun, shoots right past his hip- really tense, he kinda winces and bites pow! It’s timed just right-except it’s his front teeth together real fast.” Jim who falls over dead. Well, I ran But when Stone’s tirade had spent over in shock at first, He’d secretly itself, he recalls Arness looking at him exploded a blood capsule inside his for a tong moment and then replying: shirt, which made it look frighteningly “Milburn, you are absolutely right.” real. But then some of the crew started Adds Stone,“I had embarrassed the laughing. Jim had done this as a joke hell out of him, but Jim stood there on me. He’d told the crew to let the and took it and then had the guts to camera run and see what I’d do. He’s say that. You think this didn’t make an been doing things like this for years impression on me?As the years went to charge me up, make me laugh. But by, I realized that he’s the most un- that was a classic moment. You really hypocritical guy I ever knew.” should see it sometime.” That, unfor- Arness’s playful attitude has never tunately, is impossible. It was destroyed really changed. He still regales the at Arness’s order. crew by substituting lusty lines or bursting into sudden yodels and mock “After about the first five years, Jim choruses from religious hymns. Life on got very protective about Matt Dillon’s an Arness set occasionally gets so image,” remembers Amanda Blake(Miss hysterical that everyone’s forced to Kitty on Gunsmoke). “He didn’t want close up shop for the day. Now, though, Matt to make a mistake. It certainly there is method to his zaniness: he’s didn’t hurt the show, but I remember learned to wait for dull moments when thinking sometimes, why doesn’t he the crew’s spirits need a lift. ever allow himself to be on the other end of the pole? Why not let Matt be Indeed, as Gunsmoke prospered, Arness wrong once? Might’ve been interesting. seemed to grow with it. Director But Jim would never hear of it.” McEveety now calls him “the most pro- At the beginning of his TV days, fessional man I’ve ever worked with.” Arness hadn’t seemed to care much, Milburn Stone believes Arness’s acting one way or the other, about his charac- came to reach “classical proportions.” ter’s image.In fact, John Wayne- For years, Arness has rarely read who, ironically, shares the same birth- an entire script ahead of time. He’ll day with Arness-still enjoys telling the simply fish in his pocket for the day’s story of what happened when he him- work, saying:“Let’s see, where’d I put self turned down the Gunsmoke part my road map.7 OK, let me run this and recommended Arness, then a minor through the IBM.” Yet he’s a student of actor with Wayne’s film company. Jim, his own characters, and directors con- fearing a TV role would typecast him, sider his judgment almost infallible. responded: “You’ve ruined my career!” When Arness whittles a long-winded Once he decided to heed Wayne’s speech down to its core with the flick of advice and accept CBS’s offer, Arness’s a pencil, nobody offers much argu- -+ TV GUIDE FEBRUARY 24. 1979 21 continued ment. But once the cameras begin to roll, Like his Dillon and Macahan charac- none of that makes much difference. ters themselves, Arness has assumed a “Trying to get him to hold hands with role as protector of his own little acting Amanda was a monumental task,” says community. When Gunsmoke was can- director McEveety, “yet we’re still con- celed and then reinstated some years stantly doing shows where Jim has ago, Arness insisted that the entire close personal relationships with peo- crew be brought back intact. Many of ple. Because even though he’s shy those faces are still around, filming about them, and makes jokes about How the West Was Won. So are many them, he plays them exceedingly well.” of the- same guest stars. Today, as the Macahan character, But as his protective responsibility Arness is finally able to express the for his co-workers has grown, Arness’s less restrained side of his nature- guardedness about his characters’ the outdoorsman who delights in high images-and about his private life- surf and high slopes, fast cars and has increased as well. As a personifica- wandering ways. At the same time, in tion of absolute justice, probably no his personal life he has settled down TV-Western character was ever so pure for the first time in 16 years. Fittingly, as Marshal Dillon. Nor have many pos- his new bride was introduced to him sessed the raw strength of a Zeb by a member of the Gunsmoke crew. Macahan. Arness himself, as one close His best man was a son, Rolf, by his friend describes him, “really believes previous marriage. Another son was the in the law of the West-what’s right is wedding photographer. No one outside right, and wrong is wrong; there are the family attended. no grays.” Perhaps, in measuring him- self against the righteousness of the For this most private of men, another characters he plays, Arness has both director, Ted Post, offers this summa- sought their standards and feared that tion: “This guy’s long suit as an actor he couldn’t possibly meetthem. “I can’t is the compassion that comes out in a live up to what people believe or think poignant look that I call Weltschmerz- I am,”he once said. world pain. Gary Cooper had it. So did Bogart and Spencer Tracy. Jimmy Throughout his career, Arness’s per- Stewart and Fonda have it. So has sonal ‘life has often been a struggle Arness, and he doesn’t even know it.” for him-his first marriage ended in For nearly a quarter-century, as the divorce in 1963. Even in his acting life, star of TV’s first big Western and now Amanda Blake recalls Jim as “the most of TV’s latest, the Arness presence has difficult of the cast for me to cope captivated millions. As actor Victor with-because the rest of us were tight, French describes his appeal, “He’s but Jim didn’t really relate to me ex- never had to be fast on the draw. There cept professionally.” Around women he could be 10 men facing him and he has always been shy, and most com- says, ‘Hold it right there!’ Things just fortable with rugged, fun-loving men stop. He has that feeling about him.” like his stunt doubles. According to Some call it strength, others call it Amanda, a shared sense of humor was innocence. If Arness has not person- what salvaged their own working rela- ally always lived up to the image of tionship. In awkward situations-wheth- the Western hero, in our time he has er forgetting a line or overcoming his been the strongest instrument of its shyness-Arness generally would crack expression. In his virtues-loyalty, a joke.“It’s really his way,” says di- honesty, humor-and in his reclusive, rector Bob Totten,“of trying to cover protective nature,he has also been up self-consciousness.” simply who he is. End 22 FEBRUARY