He was one of television's biggest stars, right up there with Lucille Ball and Jackie Gleason, and at six-foot-seven, one of the tallest.
Arness was also known as a very nice person offscreen. Some years ago he penned his autobiography, and he autographed copies of his book at the Gene Autry museum. I received in the mail a signed copy of his book.
His brother was Peter Graves, who died in March of last year.
Snip:
Fearful that starring in a television series would damage his fledgling movie career, Arness only reluctantly agreed to test for the part of Dillon; he was the last of a sizable number of actors who were auditioned for the role.
When CBS offered him the part, Arness hesitated in signing the contract. But Wayne urged him to take the role, saying it was a tremendous break.
To give Arness and "Gunsmoke" a publicity boost when it debuted, Wayne provided an on-camera introduction in which he praised the new TV western series for being honest, adult and realistic.
"I knew there was only one man to play in it, James Arness," Wayne told viewers. "He's a young fella and may be new to some of you. But I've worked with him, and I predict he'll be a big star. So you might as well get used to him, like you've had to get used to me."
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Good riddance to bad rubbish as glorified serial killer Jack Kevorkian, 83, has died, and not of "physician-assisted" suicide.
Kevorkian, however, was simply crazy and apparently got a great thrill out of killing dozens of people, many if not most of whom were NOT terminally ill.
The media, however, were madly in love with this guy and glorified his killings.
Funny, isn't it, how he really wasn't any different than Ted Bundy or Gary Ridgway in the number of killings, but his murders were far cleaner?
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