James Arness

Actor who played Marshal Dillon in TV's "Gunsmoke" for decades -- via the Hollywood Reporter. After small movie roles such as a baddie in "Wagon Master" and the creature in "The Thing from Another World," he landed a part that would make him a television icon. "Gunsmoke" was not just a Western; it was a dramatic anthology crammed with great writing and acting. Arness held it all together.