John Wayne Has A Secret Cameo In Gunsmoke

When “Gunsmoke” premiered on CBS in 1955, the television series already had a fan following due to its success as a radio show. This, however, presented a bit of a problem given that the radio cast would not be carrying over to the live-action iteration. The biggest challenge? Selling viewers on a version of U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon who didn’t possess the unmistakable, sonorous voice of William Conrad.

James Arness was hardly a neophyte when he stepped in front of the camera to play Dillon. He’d appeared in numerous big-screen Westerns and had played the title monster in Christian Nyby’s “The Thing from Another World” (which would later be remade by John Carpenter as “The Thing”). At 6’7″, he was a commanding figure, though not exactly warm or charismatic. CBS thought Arness might take some getting used to, and it wasn’t exactly patient enough to wait for him to grow on viewers.

How do you sell an actor who doesn’t immediately sell himself? If you can’t plug him into a variety show or introduce his character via a preexisting series, you’re pretty well backed into a corner. So, the network threw a hail mary and hit up his buddy and former co-star, John Wayne. Amazingly, the television-averse Wayne was happy to do his pal a solid.

When television viewers turned in to CBS for the first episode of “Gunsmoke,” they weren’t treated to its regular opening theme song. Nope, they found themselves staring at the biggest movie star in Hollywood, who’d been recruited to vouch for the quality of the network’s new Western series. “Good evening,” he said. “My name’s Wayne. Some of you may have seen me before. I hope so.”

Wayne went on to (needlessly) remind viewers that he’d made his name in Westerns, and that he was visiting their living rooms to spread the “Gunsmoke” gospel. “No, I’m not in it,” he quipped. Then he got on with the shilling:

“I wish I were though ‘cuz it’s the best kind of its thing that’s come along. I hope you’ll agree with me. It’s honest, it’s adult, it’s realistic. When I first heard about the show ‘Gunsmoke,’ I knew there was only one man to play in it: James Arness. He’s a young fella, and may be new to some of you, but I’ve worked with him, and I predict he’ll be a big star — so you might as well get used to him like you’ve had to get used to me. And now I’m proud to present my friend Jim Arness in ‘Gunsmoke.'”

Somewhere in Hollywood, Arness and the cast of “Gunsmoke” were watching this introduction with jaws planted firmly on the floor. It was assumed that Arness called in a favor to the Duke, but this wasn’t the case at all. Arness had no idea what was coming and couldn’t have been more flattered. “It was absolutely marvelous,” he once said in an interview with the Archive of American Television.

How good was Wayne’s word? CBS ultimately kept “Gunsmoke” on the air for 20 yearshelping to launch the careers of folks like Burt Reynolds and Dennis Weaver. It was never the flashiest show, but for viewers who loved meat-and-potatoes Westerns, it satisfied time and again. Arness played Matt Dillon for 635 episodes, and, aside from starring in the failed cop series “McClain’s Law” in the early 1980s, stuck to Westerns for the rest of his career.