Arness, a 6-foot-6 Minnesotan, had one of the longest roles in television history spanning twenty years as the quietly heroic U.S. Marshal, keeping the peace in one of the West's most violent towns.
He also was a legend in Hollywood for his portrayal of Zeb Macahan in How the West Was Won.
On Friday, his official website carried a letter he had left to be posted after his death.
"I had a wonderful life and was blessed with some many loving people and great friends," he wrote.
The 6'-6" actor was born James Aurness in Minneapolis on May 26, 1923. — he dropped the "u" from his name at the urging of a theatre coach. His brother, who changed his name entirely, was Peter Graves, who starred in Mission Impossible.Arness left home at age 18, hopping freight trains and Caribbean-bound freighters. He was drafted into the army in 1942 and was wounded in the leg during the 1944 invasion of Italy. Arness was hospitalized for a year and left the service with a slight limp.
He returned to Minneapolis to work as a radio announcer at WLOL in Minneapolis and had small theatre roles before heading to Hollywood in 1946. In 1947 the young actor bagged a substantial role in "The Farmers Daughter" (which starred Loretta Young). In 1951, Arness appeared in the science fiction thriller, "The Thing," portraying the monster.
Arness had roles alongside Rock Hudson in Iron Man, John Wayne in Hondo and Big Jim McLain and Sterling Hayden in Hellgate. He also appeared in 1951's The Thing From Another World as the alien Thing.
Gunsmoke was initially a radio series (1952 to 1961), with Matt Dillon played by William Conrad. When the radio show "Gunsmoke" was brought to television, CBS wanted Wayne for the leading role as Marshal Matt Dillon; Wayne actually turned down the role of Matt Dillon and recommended Arness for the role. The 32 year old Arness was reluctant to take it. "Go ahead and take it, Jim," Wayne urged him. "You're too big for pictures. Guys like Gregory Peck and I don't want a big lug like you towering over us. Make your mark in television." Afraid of being typecast, Arness initially rejected it because he thought his film career might go further. A pilot was made in 1953 with Arness as the star.
As U.S. Marshal Dillon in the 1955-75 CBS Western series, Arness created an indelible portrait of a quiet, heroic man with an unbending dedication to justice and the town he protected. "He's big, impressive and virile," co-star Amanda Blake (Miss Kitty) once said of Arness, adding, "I've worked with him for 16 years, but I don't really know him."Arness developed the character of Dillon throughout its two decades, creating a man who brooded less over the violence of human nature but who also was less likely to punch his way out of trouble. He remained the fastest man in Dodge with a firearm and absolutely incorruptible. "Gunsmoke" went on to become the longest-running dramatic series in network history until NBC's "Law & Order" tied in 2010. Arness' 20-year prime-time run as the marshal was tied only in recent times, by Kelsey Grammer's 20 years as Frasier Crane from 1984 to 2004 on "Cheers" and then on "Frasier."
"The camera really loved his face, and with good reason," novelist Wallace Markfield wrote in a 1975 Gunsmoke appreciation in the New York Times. "It was a face that would age well and that, while aging, would carry intimations of waste, loss and futility." The years showed on the weathered-looking Arness, but he — and his TV character — wore them well.
In the late 1980s and 1990s, Arness starred in five TV movies based on the series.
Arness performed in western-themed television series The Macahans and How the West was Won and played detective Jim McClain in McClain's Law.
The wealth and fame Arness gained from "Gunsmoke" could not protect him from tragedy in his personal life: His marriage to Virginia Chapman ended in divorce in 1960. His daughter and his former wife, Virginia, both died of drug overdoses. They had three children together, one of whom, Jenny Lee, committed suicide in 1975.
Jim Arness, thanked fans of Gunsmoke in a note posted after his death and said 'I had a wonderful life and was blessed with ... (so) many loving people and great friends," he wrote.
"I wanted to take this time to thank all of you for the many years of being a fan of Gunsmoke, The Thing, How the West Was Won and all the other fun projects I was lucky enough to have been allowed to be a part of. I had the privilege of working with so many great actors over the years."Arness is survived by his second wife, Janet Surtrees, who he married in 1978 and his son Rolf. (named after James Arness' father), became world surfing champion in 1970 at the age of 18. Another son, Craig, died in 2004.
I love Gunsmoke and still do! He. Was my hero
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