THE GRETA GARBO of DODGE CITY Like the publicity-shy actress, Jim Arness is happiest when he’s left alone BY ROBERT DE ROOS few years ago, Amanda Blake, who Jim Arness will grant no interviews. A plays Kitty in Gunsmoke, made a Not to the lady from the West Over- wise remark: “Everyone knows what a coat (Neb.) Clarion-Call or the As- movie star is and how he acts, but no phodel (Me.) Republican. Nor to TV one quite knows yet what a television GUIDE, which in this case means me. star is or how he should act. Including Jim demands final approval of any Jim Arness.” copy which deals with him personally. Jim Arness, the pre-eminent televi- And since no self-respecting editor sion star, has learned how a star will let a television actor edit, Jim’s should act. It is doubtful, however, demand effectively ends the discussion. that other actors will follow his lead. It may be treason to say it, but Jim The way Jim plays a television star is absolutely right. At this stage of is simply to go his own way, doing the Gunsmoke (now in its 12th year), quiet things he likes best. If there are there is very little that he can do-- people who resent this, Jim does not off camera--to help the show along. If care. He has an aversion to personal he acceded to half the demands made publicity that verges on the violent. on him he would, literally, not have a Not long ago he had a photographer minute to himself or for his children. ordered from the Gunsmoke set. “I He once told a CBS publicist, “I’ll give was not covering Jim and he knew it,” you $20,000 a year if you can guaran- the photographer said. “I was there to tee I get no publicity.” There is no shoot special effects for the burning of doubt he meant it. Dodge City. Jim’s feelings are well-known to “During the rest period I was perch- his associates. I called Peter Graves, ed on a stepladder, looming above the Jim’s brother and a star of last season’s crowd like a mushroom. Jim sat there Court-Martial. “TV GUIDE,” he said. glowering at me, and the next thing I “Oh, boy.” He enlarged: “I wouldn’t knew, I was ordered off the set. talk to anybody without Jim’s approv- “It didn’t bother me. I went to the al. If Jim says OK, I’ll be glad to talk.” next-door set and shot the fire from a Robert Emme, Jim’s business mana- window.” ger and liaison man with continued TV GUIDE DECEMBER 10, 1966 19 James Arness/continued But acting was thrust upon Jim Arness. He was just a tall, blond, con- the world, said, “Jim won’t talk to you fused kid when he was inveigled into and neither will I.” a part in a little theater. He lacks the I was in the middle of an interview basic temperamental and emotional with Milburn Stone, Gunsmoke’s DOC, structure of the true actor. when the producer called. “Jim is very An actor is just like any other per- upset about this interview,” he said. son-only more so. It is a matter of The call upset Stone and the inter- degree. Everyone is vain; actors are view ended. superbly vain. Everyone wants to “Jim’s acting more like a millionaire please; actors yearn and strive to than an actor these days,” a CBS pub- please. Everyone likes praise; actors licity man said. need praise as much as they need food. It is true that most millionaires are “Actors are children,” says Milburn inaccessible, but there is more to the Stone. “They have to be told they are Jim Arness story than that. good and needed.” It is also true that Jim is a shy and sensitive man. And his aversion to A real human being publicity is not a new thing; it did not grow with his bank account. Hollywood’s highest compliment is: Long ago Jim told me he was very “So-and-So is a real human being.” uneasy with the press. “There is this Jim Arness is a real human being. constant thing of people coming at Never more so than when he says, you,” he said.“Fans, publicity men, “Let me alone.” writers, photographers. They usually “Jim has never held court as many wind up saying the same thing over actors do,” says Norman Macdonnell, and over. I’m sick of stories about former producer of Gunsmoke. “There being real tall.” never has been an admiring throng He has always been a loner, uncom- around Jim. He’d much rather go to fortable in a crowd, suspicious of flat- his dressing room and lie down or talk tery. to one of the guys. There is no ex- His very unactorlike conduct is per- hibitionistic thing about Jim, All he haps explained by the fact that Jim wants is to do the show and get away.” Arness is not basically an actor, al- As much as possible, Gunsmoke’s though he performs for a living. shooting schedule is tailored to Arness. “We always tried to keep Jim out of On-the-job training the show Mondays and Fridays so he could go skiing or go to the islands The Hollywood consensus is that where the big waves were breaking,” Arness lucked in. “Jim was just an Macdonnell says. “Then he’d come in extra working in Westerns when he and work his tail off Tuesday, Wed- got the call to Gunsmoke,” I have nesday and Thursday. Jim told me, heard many times, although the state- ‘If we can’t schedule it this way, let’s ment is not wholly accurate. But Jim forget the whole thing. I’m going to has had the advantage of 11 years’ on- have some time with my children. the-job training and it may be ad- Period.’ ” (Arness and his wife, Vir- mitted that today he acts. ginia, were divorced some years ago.) “I spent the first two years on Gun- So Jim does his work and disap- smoke despising Jim’s lack of profes- pears. He is never seen in Hollywood. sionalism,”says Milburn Stone. “Now Not long ago he was seen with a I say his acting has reached classical young lady. “It was an event,” says proportions.” Macdonnell. “It was all over town the 20 TV GUIDE DECEMBER 10, 1966 next morning that Jim had had a found the Pacific Ocean. Again and date.” again, Jim returns to the sea. In television’s short life a regular Back in the days when he spoke to pattern has developed for TV actors. me, Jim said: “It all happened so First, they are nobody. Second, they fast-becoming an actor and all-that get a series and become somebody. I was stewing in my own juices. Then Third, they complain about their im- I discovered the beach. The ocean possibly hard life. Fourth, they let fascinated me. The first time I tried to it be known that television is a de-. surf a big wave, I almost drowned meaning medium, that their series is and it frightened me. I was deter- beneath their talents and that they mined to overcome my fear of the sea. hear a higher call to play Hamlet. “The year I spent on the beach was not because I wanted to be a Mastered his art beach bum but because it was a time for discovery. Once again, Jim Arness is not typi- “I still have this feeling about the cal. He is one of the best-known men ocean. The greatest spiritual cleans- on TV. He has mastered his art. He ing I can imagine is to dive into a big has been around longer than almost surf. It is purifying: getting into the anyone else. He does not complain clean salt water, away from affecta- about working too hard. He does not tion, away from the mixed-up world, yammer that television is demeaning. coming to grips with the elements- He does not want to play King Lear. the sun and the air and the sea.” “Jim’s attitude is this,” a friend says, “ ‘I am an actor. I play Matt Dillon. I He loved poetry play Matt Dillon to the very best of my ability.’ Jim always has had a The only part of school that reached meat-and-potatoes attitude toward Jim was courses in literature. “I used the business and attached no great to love poetry,” he said. “I loved glamor to it. He has great simplicity Shakespeare, Keats, Shelley, Byron.” on the screen and great simplicity as I asked him what his favorite was a man.” now, and Jim sat down and wrote out One key to Jim is what he does an Emily Dickinson poem for me from when he is not at work. In his free memory. Here is part of it: time he skin dives. He sails. He is an excellent surfer. He is a fine rifle shot. Growth of man like growth of nature He is a good and ardent skier. l Gravitates within- It is significant that all of these are Atmosphere and sun confirm it one-man, noncompetitive sports. “It But it stirs alone . would be hard to visualize Jim playing mixed doubles in tennis,” a friend Each its difficult ideal says. Must acheive - itself- Jim’s main memories of childhood Through the solitary prowess are of days when he tramped the Of a silent life .