Which Character Actor Turned Up in Every TV Western? 

He was always a favorite of mine.

Also Warren kemmerling.

Don't forget jack in cannonball run. Insane.

On Gunsmoke alone He did 15 episodes. The original "Hardest working man in Hollywood."

He was actually a trained accountant but with only one eye the strain on all the hours of close work was a threat to his vision in the only eye he had left.

@pjoe1950: Also known as Doris Day's Boss "Cy" on "The Doris Day Show." And "Colonel Harvey", the sidewinder who gets "Aunt Bea" pixillated with his "elixir" on "The Andy Griffith Show." Booo!😂😡 Also participated in one of the great Hollywood inside jokes ever with his appearance in a TV Western Movie. The late great John Dehner was Cast as a wheeling and dealing Western Cardsharp known by all as "High Spade Johnny Dean!"😂🤣😂😉🎤♠️🤠📺B.W.

@pjoe1950: Getting back to Doris Day for a moment a 1970 TV Exec ginormously underestimated the strength of a Show Programmed against Her CBS Sitcom. It originated in September of 1970 on ABC and continues airing to this day. The quote (in so many words)? "How can they go up against Doris Day?" The Show of course was and is "Monday Night Football!"😂🤣😂🏈📺B.W.

John Dehner terrific actor with a very powerful distinctive voice?

He was the voice of Paladin when it was a radio show

The best version also.​@@robbubba8020

Mostly movies, as I recall.

@@johnprentice1527 Lee did more movie roles but also a lot of TV. His body of work was huge. For example, 4 episodes of Rifleman, 4 Laramie, 4 Gunsmoke, 3 Cheyenne, 2 Rawhide and dozens of others.

@@montemasterson9588 Thanks for your list of Van Cleef's TV roles; he was great.The westerns you cite, although I watched all of them, were not my usual go-to shows. Have Gun Will Travel, Wanted Dead or Alive, Maverick, Bonanza, Bat Masterson, and Yancey Derringer were my faves. And I remember seeing Warren Oates in so many of those shows.

And at least as well known as those on here if not a little more...

Yes & I was going to mention Ben Johnson but that was mainly in movies rather than television shows.

i thought it was kind of sad when they put jack on a tv series as a loveable, charming character

Jake: Now the way this story ends... is that they get married and he goes on to become governor of the state. Never gets to Australia, but he keeps readin' a lot of books about it. I get to be sheriff of this town... and then I go on to become one of the most beloved characters in Western folklore.

Probably one thousand , but he'll always be " Swifty Morgan " to me . R.I.P. " Swifty ".

@@waldoparsnip1025 Or the "doctor" in the Cannonball Run movie.

FrednDeeDee I read a story about Mr. Elam somewhere years ago. That he was an accountant for one of the studios and someone talked him into trying for a part.

And Slim Pickens! Such a great name.

And Gabby Hayes.

Claude Akins is another great one.

Ben was one of my favorite cowboys. He was a definite natural 🤠

​@@greybone777No he wasn't.

@@scarygary-qq1pj He was a cowboy. Owned his own ranch and participated in rodeos.

Got hired because of great horsemanship.

I think he might have been just a tad later, but great nominee! Love his turn in Stripes!

A good thing for all of us lovers of Westerns, their actors & actresses is to go visit the Cowboy Hall of Fam in Oklahoma City! Go online and find out more than I can tell! I've been a Western lover since the early 50's,

Yes ! Warren is definitely in top 10 all time great character actors.

*Speaking of Warren Oates, he even played a cowboy (hat and all) on the original "Lost In Space" series in an episode called "West of Mars". It turned out to be one of best episodes of the entire series, believe it or not.* 👍👍👍

@@james_t_kirk Thanks for you comment. I didn't watch many Lost in Space episodes, so I missed that one.

See my video on him in my channel.

Always loved Jack Elam the best. But, character actors are a special fav in general. You can keep the “handsome” leading men. 💛

Mr. Martin also appeared with Paul Newman in the spoof of professional hockey 🏒 "Slapshot"

Is that the movie with the Hansen Brothers?

Strother!

He was so much fun to watch. Love him ❣

Yes!!! He was a very great actor -- his business with his hands just added to his characters. He started out as a diving and swimming instructor, I believe. He also went to my old high school: George Washington High School in Indianapolis.

Love this category! Anderson very busy guy, but I think Dehner wins in the category.

I never had so much fun reading the responses. Did not know about Paul Fix as an acting coach, but he would have been very early as a star, I think? Apparently Leonard Nimoy was a respected acting coach, in between being just about everything in everything (lots of Indians, of course!)

you have to remember.. this is about TV westerns, not movies... what they did in a movie doesn't count in this question...

Agree! Just watched Support Your Local Sheriff and Support Your Local Gunfighter just 2 days ago!

He was a "whore holder at Madame Orrs. " Lived that movie. Have watched it many times!.❤

And once upon a time in the west is my favorite western! Not because of it real view of the west but because of the characters in it. And Claudia Cardinalie was a real hottie! And Jason Robard and Charles Bronson woke so well together! And the sound track. More spaghetti please!!

Edgar was ALL OVER the place...... and was GREAT at what he did.... Another legend!

I think he was in more than anyone.

Uncle Joe

A bit of trivia, most people don't know about Mr. Buchanan was that he was a dentist before he went into acting, and he was married to a dentist, who so far as I know maintained her profession even after Edgar became famous.

Buchanan and Glen Ford--one of my ALL TIME favorite actors--were very close friends. You'll notice they were in many, many films together. They seemed to come as a package.

He was even in an episode of Star Trek. 🙂

I head butted Steve McQueen in the crotch in early 1959 in St. Louis Missouri.... I was 6 years old... Tripped on a threshold coming out of a store and he was walking down the sidewalk....Evidently he was in town to make a movie... Mom saw the whole thing and said if that hadn't happened, I'd have been on the way to the hospital, because I was flying face first for the front fender of our 1950 Ford 2 door, and those were made of real metal. And yes, I was accident prone... Not one of my prouder moments...

Dabbs is buried in SW Mo.

This video said Dabbs Greer lived from 1901 to 1983. He actually lived from 1917 to 2007. I think they got Tom Fix's lifespan mixed up with Dabbs's. Dabbs lived in Missouri from his birthday to 1943, moving to California afterwards. Your story makes sense since Dabbs was raised in Anderson, Missouri, about 17 miles south of Neosho :)

I was in a hotel in Duncan, Oklahoma in the early 60s. Behind the desk were pictures of Opie. I said to my grandfather, "They sure are fans of Opie." He answered "They sure are. They are his grandparents!"

Claude akins was great.

The Famous Purple People Eater. He also was Ben Colder, who made comedy songs.

He did play a good guy once on TV's "Gunsmoke". He was a Dodge City citizen. I think his house was torched by a villain or villains, although I might have the event wrong; it could have been someone else whose character had his house burned down. I know Lane Bradford did play a citizen on one episode of "Gunsmoke" who was not a bad guy for once. Then again, I have long wished to see actors who normally play villains, play good guys -- at least once each. I remember that Jack Lambert, who almost always played a villain on TV and in the movies, did play a not-bad guy in an "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" episode; he played a gas station attendant in an episode that starred MacDonald Carey and co-starred Edgar Buchanan and Adam Williams, but I'm ashamed to admit: I don't remember who played the grown daughter in that episode. Leo Gordon, Bruce Gordon (who weren't related), and Mike Mazurki usually played bad guys too. It seems that Mike Mazurki played a good guy more than the others, but, if you will forgive all this digression... I will say: I appreciate people like you and the others who take the time to learn the names of those (mostly overlooked) character actors. I wish I could remember the name of the thin actress with the southern drawl who played on many shows (I especially remember she played on several "Gunsmoke" episodes) whose first name began or begins (I think she is still alive) with an "L", but her last name is also Bradford.

I had no seen Bradford in Gunsmoke. But from 1971-1981 I was on active duty with the Marine Corps so I missed 10 years of tv.​@@JohnBopp-sq7io

He was in Cool Hand Luke never said anything with those silver sunglasses!!!!!

Loved Jack Elam, John Dehner too!

Yes, seems like Morgan Woodward was in everything !!

Mr. Woodward was in almost 20 Gunsmoke episodes alone and lived into his mid 90's

Yay! sidekick to Wyatt Earp to start with, if I remember. Had a turn in The A Team late career, but in the middle: Star Trek. Favorite of mine.

He could really look mean!!!

Yep. On that show (Circus Boy) he played Corky, but in the credits he used the stage name Micky Braddock.

After Circus Boy...

James Hong has Carradine beat by a considerable amount, Carrodine's 351 to Hong's 600.

@@kirkdarling4120 I wonder why I've never heard this before.

Had a turn on Wagon Train. (Probably everybody mentioned showed up in Wagon Train, but there's a running Svengoolie gag that they definitely all showed up on: Perry Mason!)

Dub Taylor was everywhere.

​@@ThomasGidley-kv2ujYou're not kidding. He was in You Can't Take It with You, with Jimmy Stewart, Edward Arnold, Ann Miller and Jean Arthur.

Yay Jim Davis! He died before end of his most famous role: Jock Ewing on "Dallas." But definitely a prime nominee in this category.

Morgan Woodward was one of the best. He could play the good guy, but very few could play the bad guy as well as he could. Always at the top of his game whatever he played.

Don't forget " F-troop"

AI sucks

Had to re-watch that segment... good catch. I knew there was something familiar about them two...

Whoa. First one new to me.

@@Ddax-td7qy He played one of Frank Miller's gang in High Noon (1952), and he later played the captain of the guards in the Libyan gold mines (or diggings) in Spartacus (1960) "Spartacus again, huh. Well, this time he dies," his character said near the beginning of that film. He appeared in several episodes of TV's Gunsmoke (even as a good guy a few times: He played James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok once, and he played a good guy ex-prize fighter in another episode) usually as a bad guy. He was often a bad guy in other westerns.

Had to look him up. I do remember him in a variety of shows.

I caught that as well.

@franklin-jj4jz: Besides his work in TV Westerns Dabbs Greer Played the part of the first person to be rescued by "Superman" in "The Adventures of Superman" in 1953.🤔B.W.

Thanx for correcting that... Something went crooked in my head when he said that...

It was Just a wee-bit of 16 yrs. And Yes he looked good in the days following his death in 83. That was just to show Great dedication to his fans, give the last good show. I totally missed that , thanks for the correction..

I have to agree. Lee was killed three times by the rifleman (Chuck Conners) I've seen him in a lot of movies and TV shows. I knew him before he became famous, so I always spotted him.

Gabby Hayes was the first one that came to mind.

All great contenders

Kurt Russell's dad was Bing Russell.

Yup. He even did a series of commercials for the California Prune Growers.

Harry Dean Stanton Played in the Green Mile

Really is he still here with us he's a god huh' thats a weird comment to make he's a regular guy I liked him in the westerns but believe me he's no God he'd still be with us if he was

His appearance as Mr. Stoner, Tommy Chong's dad, in "Up in Smole" was short because most of his content found it's way to the cutting room floor.

I haven't noticed Zerbe in the older Westerns, but I knew he was a star in a couple of episodes of Mission Impossible, when i was a kid. Had a steady role as "Teaspoon" on a later Western, can't remember the title: Josh Brolin got his start there.

I always liked him too.

The Young Riders

So forget about ward bond. Loved him

No it wasn't.🙄Sheesh...

Seriously

@@letsgobrandon6281 Watch “the Rifleman” in episodes in which Paul Fix is in and you will here the pronunciation.

I'm going to say you're a f

Im compiling a video now on Elam, should be up tomorrow

Great character!

Mr French?

TALKING

wrong

Good one! You are the first I've seen to bring him up, but, yeah!

I remember him in "High Noon"; he worked for Helen Ramirez (Katy Jurado's character).

Take a look at my videos on Elam in my channel, thanks!