Obituary: Dale Robertson

Yet another early television pioneer has departed from the scene: actor Dale Robertson, 89, has died. He appeared on many shows during the 1950s and 1960s, including starring in series such as Tales of Wells Fargo and Iron Horse. He had suffered from pneumonia and lung cancer.

Robertson was one of those good-looking leading TV actors of the era who mainly appeared in westerns. However, he didn't much care to act in more recent television series like Dynasty, as they were too much into the sleaze for his tastes.

I like this part of the obituary:

"They got me to do 15 episodes … but that was enough," he told Canada's Globe and Mail in 1988. "They kept putting all of this sex and stuff into it and I didn't do it the way they wanted. I never had the ability to keep my big mouth shut."

He and I both had that inability to keep quiet. He was lucky, though, to have retired to Oklahoma years before his health finally gave out. Yours truly is likely to have her health wear out long before she can retire.

There are many episodes of Tales of Wells Fargo up on YouTube, but unfortunately the embedding is blocked. However, you can find a page with scads of complete episodes here.

Robertson actually sang a bit. Here he is with Johnny Cash: