Arness, James

Arness, James (b. James Aurness)

(1923– ) television actor; born in Minneapolis, Minn. He was wounded in the Anzio, Italy, invasion in 1944. After working as a screen actor in the 1940s and 1950s, he took on the role of Marshall Matt Dillon (after John Wayne turned it down), the no-nonsense, good-hearted hero of CBS's Gunsmoke, television's first and longest running Western series (1955–75). His brother was the television actor Peter Graves.