# Goodbye, Matt. James Arness dies at 88. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 3, 2011, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-matt-james-arness-dies-at-88/584260 "2011-06-03T23:31:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2011, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-matt-james-arness-dies-at-88/584260/21 "2011-06-04T16:42:45Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > I don’t remember the name, but I do remember the episode in which Festus made a “rockin’ mule” for some little babies(triplets) that were born in Dodge City. Also, not too long ago I saw a rerun of this episode on television. The circuit judge that came to town, to decide the fate of the orphaned triplets, sure looked familiar. I kept thinking, “I _know_ this guy!” I didn’t want to Google, I like figuring these conundrums out myself. Finally I did a :smack:. It was Denver Pyle, better know to me as Uncle Jesse, from the _Dukes of Hazzard_ TV series. Without the beard he looked different. And that episode was the only one, it’s said, in which a gun was never fired, although I don’t have a cite for that. At the time you almost never saw non-regular characters after their appearance in a single episode. But in a later _Gunsmoke_ the family that adopted the triplets(and they already had a dozen kids!) was seen again, when they took in yet another, a girl who’d been abandoned and lived in the wild by herself. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2011, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-matt-james-arness-dies-at-88/584260/22 "2011-06-04T17:10:17Z")
[QUOTE=UntouchedTakeaway] (PS - Sampiro, I’m VeuveClicquoNJ on FoD - I used that name here too, but hadn’t posted in a long while & lost the recovery/use of the name) 🙂 [/QUOTE] In that case, forgive the duplicate posting.😉 ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2011, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-matt-james-arness-dies-at-88/584260/23 "2011-06-04T20:12:03Z")
Arness is another of my childhood heroes. I recall the excitement in the early 1990’s when he came back for several Gunsmoke tv movies. Even at that age he seemed very tough and still the Matt Dillon I remembered. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2011, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-matt-james-arness-dies-at-88/584260/24 "2011-06-04T22:44:34Z")
> [@UntouchedTakeaway](#): > > (PS - Sampiro, I’m VeuveClicquoNJ on FoD - I used that name here too, but hadn’t posted in a long while & lost the recovery/use of the name) 🙂 Better email \*\*Tuba \*\*posthaste, then, so she can merge the accounts. Re Ken Curtis’ singing voice. I’m not surprised. Jim Nabors, for example, has what may best be described as an unfortunate speaking voice. His baritone _singing_, however, is lovely. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-matt-james-arness-dies-at-88/584260/25 "2011-06-06T19:39:20Z")
> [@Small\_Hen](#): > > I’ve heard that James Arness’s mother curses the day her womb was blighted with such a horrible creature. > > Biography! For those not getting the joke: an MST3K riff during a Peter Graves movie (parts: the clonus horror). Possibly the funniest 10 seconds ever on television, IMHO. > [@Tom Servo](#): > > James Arness. As a young boy, James Arness nurtured a howling bitterness in the face of the awesomely superior talent of his brother, Peter Graves. > Peter Graves’ life and career were marked by a generosity of spirit and loving attitude towards his fellow man, which were altogether missing in the pitted soul of James Arness. Often, James Arness’ mother would remark to friends that she loved her son Peter Graves so very, very much; while she hated James Arness and cursed the day her womb had been blighted with such a creature. “James Arness: Ugly and Stupid”…tonight on “Biography.” ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-matt-james-arness-dies-at-88/584260/26 "2011-06-06T19:56:15Z")
I’ve been watching Them! recently (haven’t finished it yet). Sad to see him go. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-matt-james-arness-dies-at-88/584260/27 "2011-06-06T20:24:04Z")
While we had much of that genre available to us; The Rifleman, Wanted, Death Valley Days, Have Gun Will Travel, for some reason I only remember about a year’s worth of Gunsmoke. Pity as much of it was on par with or better than just about everything else. Arness was captivating, his character and demeanor seeming dead perfect for the part. I’d like to know more too about his WWII experiences. Wounded by a machine gun at Anzio? Dayum. I got to learn a bunch more about Ken Curtis, Festus, later though a friend of my in laws. Dick was a CO rancher, one hilarious sonuvabitch and grew up in Las Animas best friends with Ken. He told us many stories about the crap the two of them would get into, like when they and a buddy rode their horses full gallop racing down through a draw. Ken hit a branch of grapevine hanging down, was knocked from his horse and broke both arms in the fall. Dick 'bout broke a rib laughing at Ken trying to get him back on his horse. They remained good friends over the years and Dick would always light up at mention of his name and soon have us laughing at their exploits. I passed by the Las Animas jail there in front of the courthouse several times last week but just now realized that’s where Ken was raised. It’s easy to believe though that those environs contributed to some of the character development he employed in Gunsmoke and his movies. Bogsville too, where Kit Carson was first buried, is just down the road. ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-matt-james-arness-dies-at-88/584260/28 "2011-06-06T21:44:50Z")
> [@UncaStuart](#): > > Re: the famous Gunsmoke opening. > I really appreciated the spoof Maverick did of the opening in its episode “Gun-Shy.” I was an avid viewer of both shows, but even as an 11-year-old I felt the long-range shooting of the Gunsmoke opening was bogus. Apparently, the Maverick writers felt the same way. > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRR1-YUfZmM](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRR1-YUfZmM) RIP Mr. Arness. That Maverick parody of Gunsmoke was hilarious though. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-matt-james-arness-dies-at-88/584260/29 "2011-06-07T16:30:19Z")
IMO, \*Gunsmoke \*is one of the best shows ever. Very well written and acted. RIP, Mr. Arness, you helped create one of the best heroes ever. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-matt-james-arness-dies-at-88/584260.md?page=1)