(CBS) James Arness, the tall, iconic actor best known for playing Marshal Matt Dillon on the long-running television series "Gunsmoke," has died. He was 88. The Los Angeles Times reports the actor ...

‘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 ...

Seventy years ago, on September 10, 1955, a gunfighter named Matt Dillon first strode into Dodge City on CBS, Gunsmoke, helping to change the nature of TV Westerns, eventually running for 20 years, ...

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, ...

Before Gunsmoke came along, Arness was aiming for a career in the movie business. However, he had difficulty breaking out in a meaningful way. Much of this was because his 6’7″ height worried a lot of ...

Origins: The role of Matt Dillon was never offered to John Wayne. Wayne, like many other film actors of the time, considered television an upstart medium unworthy of his talents. When CBS decided in ...

Matt Dillon wasn’t much for romance. The Gunsmoke hero played by James Arness only had one on-screen kiss during the show’s 20-season run. Arness locked lips with Michael Learned of The Waltons in a ...