Because the show was on so long, Gunsmoke holds a number of records. Both James Arness and Milburn Stone played their characters for 20 years, a feat only recently surpassed by Mariska Hargitay on Law ...

James Arness, the 6-foot-6 actor who towered over the television landscape for two decades as righteous Dodge City lawman Matt Dillon in "Gunsmoke," died Friday. He was 88. The actor died in his sleep ...

Offscreen, James Arness traded Dodge City’s saloon dust for the comfort of his own king-size bed. Photographed in 1956, the towering Gunsmoke star relaxes with a script for an upcoming episode, ...

On Sept. 10, 1955, the Western premiered on CBS before kicking off a 20-season, 635-episode run. By Hal Landers On Sept. 10, 1955, the iconic Western series Gunsmoke premiered on CBS from 10 ...

Marlon Arness Foster, 66, of Harrisonburg, passed away on Sunday, June 29, 2025, at the Sentara RMH Medical Center. Mr. Foster was born on January 3, 1959, in Williamsburg, VA and was a son of the ...

A son shared stories about his father serving in the Army with James Arness during World War II and another reader set a goal to watch the entire "Gunsmoke" series. After reading a story about James ...

When the classic western drama “Gunsmoke” finished its 20-year run on CBS in 1975, Los Angeles Times critic Cecil Smith made a bold prediction. “I have the feeling that the first moon colony we ...

A close-up of John Wayne in his cowboy getup in the first episode of 'Gunsmoke' titled "Matt Gets It" Image via CBS If you're at all familiar with television Westerns, then you'd undoubtedly have ...

‘Gunsmoke’ aired from 1955 to 1974 and set a new standard for TV drama Tereza Shkurtaj is a writer-reporter at PEOPLE. She has been working for PEOPLE since 2025. Her work has previously appeared in ...

One of the coolest dudes that I had the pleasure to hang out with quite a bit was James Arness. He was the dude who played Marshal Matt Dillon on the popular television show “Gunsmoke.” I know a lot ...