How ‘Gunsmoke’s James Arness Barely Avoided Calamity – And That’s No Bull
The career of James Arness almost came to a very pointed end, just as Gunsmoke was taking off.
Arness etched his name in the halls of pop culture history as Marshall Matt Dillon, the heroic lawman who kept the peace in Dodge City, Kansas for 20 seasons. Television viewers first met Marshall Dillon in 1955, four days after The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp rode into the sunset. With a new cowboy on their screens, TV viewers couldn’t get enough of Dillon, Doc Adams (Milburn Stone), Deputy Chester Goode (Dennis Weaver) and Miss Kitty (Amanda Blake).
And so, 15,000 fans gathered to see Arness, appearing as Marshall Matt Dillon, aat the 1958 Ohio State Fair. He performed some gun tricks at the fair’s rodeo before discussing the show (think of it as Comic-Con before Comic-Con).
But disaster almost struck when an official invited Arness to shake some hands near a fence at the fairground. Arness was concerned that it would “hold up the show,” but officials reassured him that the show would go on around him.
As Arness was meeting fans, he heard the sound of bells. According to the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph (h/t MeTV), nobody told the rodeo officials that Arness was holding a meet-and-greet while near the fence, and a huge Brahma bull had been released from its chute. It had ejected its rider and now was staring down Marshall Matt Dillon.
Having worked on numerous Westerns before taking on the Gunsmoke role, Arness apparently knew that if he ran, it would be curtains for him — the bull would run him down, and he would be gored to death.
So, Arness started edging his way towards the gate, but the movement angered the already irritated bull. So it charged!
Arness, according to the tale, made a mad dash for the fence. Helping hands helped pull him to safety. But even then, Arness reportedly felt the bull’s horns poke into the seat of his pants!
Thankfully, this close call didn’t hinder Arness’s career. He starred in Gunsmoke from 1955 to 1975, reprising his role in a handful of TV movies in the 1980s and 1990s. He died of natural causes in his Los Angeles home in 2011 at age 88.
Cowboy Christmas
November/December 2024
Saddle up for some Holiday Cowboy fun with movies, music and your fav Christmas episodes of classic Westerns.
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