I just heard that Dennis Weaver passed away from
complications from cancer, only days after Darren McGavin and
Don Knotts.
Coincidentally, I'd just seen Weaver's favorite GUNSMOKE
episode, "Chesterland," on the 50th Anniversay DVD. He
resigns his deputy's job to farm a plot of land he's
homesteading outside of Dodge in hopes of marrying his girl
friend. Of course it turns out badly.
Weaver managed to rise above the exaggerated (and potentially
career-limiting) character he created for GUNSMOKE. He went
on to play the lead in five other TV series, including his
role as a hard-nosed but homey rural cop from the Southwest
assigned to the NYPD on McCLOUD.
In the feature film version of DRAGNET, he played the
cammander of Homicide (coincidentally the same character
played by Milburn Stone, GUNSMOKE's "Doc" in an early episode
of the TV series). On the series he had a semi-recurring role
as a lab cop.
Perhaps his most famous role was in DUEL, a TV-movie directed
by rookie filmmaker Steven Spielberg, in which he played a
traveling salesman menaced by a psychopathic truck
driver.
A fine actor, and a fine man, who'll be missed.
JIM DOHERTY
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