I've just been wondering how Chester was written out of Gunsmoke? I didn't watch them way back then, but I enjoy
reruns now.
reruns now.
GUNSMOKE QUESTION
- Thread starter crazyphil
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Dennis Weaver had done the show for a long time (10 years?) and wanted to go do something else. He did some show I don't remember and then hit it big with McCloud.
sigp220.45
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Dennis Weaver quit the show after nine years. He was there one season and gone the next. I don’t think his absence was explained.
He did Kentucky Jones, then landed McCloud.
He did Kentucky Jones, then landed McCloud.
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Guess those poor folks in Dodge will never know what happened to him.
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I always figured he got tired of faking a limp all those seasons.
Hawker800
Member
I remember Dennis being on a talk show years later. He was asked “why weren’t you on the Gunsmoke reunion episode?” “Well” Dennis said “they didn’t invite me.”
THE PILGRIM
Member
Saw Dennis and Bride in local Whole-foods.
They were reading labels.
Hard core vegetarians!
Didn’t seem like a good time for them to be harassed by a Bambi busting - Road Kill eating Hill Billy!
They were reading labels.
Hard core vegetarians!
Didn’t seem like a good time for them to be harassed by a Bambi busting - Road Kill eating Hill Billy!
He also made the movie "Duel" by Steven Spielberg. Very good movie.
THE PILGRIM
Member
Recently Saw him in an old Black and White Joe Friday.
He was a Police Lab Guy.
He was a Police Lab Guy.
The last episode he was in he left town looking for a murderer
I didn't miss him. Fake drawl and all.
Chester was a bit before my time, my first encounter was the short lived TV series Gentle Ben produced by local legend Ivan Tors.
Ogandydancer
Member
I do not like him in anything he ever did, he's just one of those actors I do not care for. Gunsmoke was in my estimation much better after Festus arrived.
Step N. Mud
Member
Seem to remember reading an article about him living off grid in a bunker made of old tires while going Green. Liked the movie DUEL, but that car he was driving, he should have returned to the rental agency. 
I thought once Matt commented that Chester had move to some other town and was working in a store.
Yesterday I was watching Gunsmoke on the INSP. channel. Interspersed in the shows was the first Gunsmoke episode, S1E1, 1955. James Arness had very black hair, Amanda Blake looked like teenager, Milburn Stone looked like a young middle aged man, and Dennis Weaver looked like a teenager that the wind would blow away. Marshal Dillion was outdrawn and shot! Got well in a week, figured out not get get in close, confronted the gunslinger, and prevailed this time!
I had never seen the first episode!
I had never seen the first episode!
Phil, a quick Interweb search revealed the following, closely held secret.
Chester eloped with the lovechild of Matt and Miss Kitty. They settled in Virginia City, NV, where for years they operated the Short Branch Saloon
.
As studio actors they show up everywhere. I ve seen Chester as an Indian in Audie Murphy movies and an Egyptian soldier. Saw Festus in a horror movie about giant shrews the other night. He got shrewed..
Ken (Festus Hagan) Curtis has a great singing voice and appears in many older John Wayne movies along with some of the other JW pals: Noah Beery Jr, Harry Carry jr, Ben Johnson, etc. When he appears in any other movie or tv show you don't see NO trace of Festus.
He does that so well that it seems like it would be the way he is in real life. And that little squint thing he does when he wants to make a point.
He does that so well that it seems like it would be the way he is in real life. And that little squint thing he does when he wants to make a point.
