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In our post on the 1960 episodes, we discussed the founding
of
Tales of Wells Fargo and its quick
rise to fame, reaching #3 on the Nielsen charts in its first full season and
continuing in the top 10 at #7 the following season, but despite star and 50%
owner
Dale Robertson's maneuvering to oust aging creator
Nat Holt and replace
him with
Earle Lyon beginning in Season 5, the fleeting success of the series
seems to be a case of the rising tide of westerns lifting all boats rather than
Wells Fargo finding popularity
because of its own merits. The program first appeared mid-season in March 1958,
a season in which 9 of the top 30 programs were westerns. For the 1958-59
season, the high-water mark for westerns in which
Wells Fargo placed #3, there were 14 westerns in the top 30--even
Sugarfoot made the list at #21. By
1959-60, when
Wells Fargo dipped
slightly to #7, the waters had begun to recede as only 11 westerns cracked the
top 30. The competition also begin to get tougher as popular programs like
Rawhide and
Maverick entered the fray. And though it did not crack the top 30
in its initial season, there would soon be a new sheriff in town--
Bonanza, which stood out not only for
its all-male quartet cast but more importantly because it was a 1-hour western
in color. By 1960-1961
Wells Fargo
had faded out of the top 30 and
Bonanza
entered at #17, while the top 30 contained only 8 westerns. It's clear where
the direction of the genre was heading. When perennial top-rated
Gunsmoke expanded from a 30-minute to
1-hour format while still remaining black-and-white for the 1961-62 season, it
lost its top spot to
Wagon Train
while
Bonanza vaulted to #2. Only 6
westerns made the top 30 that season.
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The problem for
Wells
Fargo was that it had no distinguishing feature that set it apart from
others of its ilk, and the attempts by its producers to change its downward
trajectory were the same techniques used on other programs with similar
unsuccessful results. For the
Wells Fargo
Season 5 episodes that aired in 1961 with Lyons at the helm, the producers
attempted to pair the wholesome Jim Hardie with colorful characters and historical
figures to spur interest. For the latter technique, they brought on famous
pugilist
John L. Sullivan in "The Hand That Shook the Hand" (February
6, 1961) in a yarn in which we do not actually see Sullivan box, but he
accidentally injures a hustling prankster while in a drunken stupor and then
vows to give up his violent career until he learns that his victim has
miraculously recovered. The episode makes Hardie largely a bystander in the
interchange between two colorful characters and places him in the town where it
all happens with the lame explanation that he is between assignments. In other
words, the story has nothing to do with his working for Wells Fargo.
Late in Season 5, the producers bring back two colorful
characters featured in episodes from 1960, perhaps figuring that if they proved
popular before then they can work their magic again. "The Repentant
Outlaw" (May 29, 1961) marks the return of
Edgar Buchanan's scofflaw Doc
Dawson, who gets mixed up in the robbery of an army payroll that Hardie is
supposed to be escorting when the leader of an outlaw gang escapes but is
wounded, which sends his henchman searching for a doctor to remove the bullet
and Dawson is the only "doctor" they can find. The following episode,
"A Quiet Little Town" (June 5, 1961), brings back Hardie frenemy Wade
Cather, played by
John Dehner, when Hardie, again not on official business,
shows up in the small town where his friend Marshal Dave Prescott was murdered
and discovers that Cather is now serving as the town's marshal with the lame explanation
that Prescott once saved his life, so he took the job to find out who killed
him and now is worried that the same men will kill Hardie. Having to jazz up a
story with colorful characters like Dawson and Cather only makes painfully
obvious that the star of the show is too bland to attract and keep viewers.
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Since the tactics employed in Season 5 did not raise
Wells Fargo in the ratings, the
producers tried throwing in the kitchen sink when it came to Season 6--they
expanded the program to 60 minutes, shot it in color, added a new opening
sequence and theme, and introduced a supporting cast of 5 new regular
characters. Since Dale Robertson was an avid horse enthusiast, his character
Jim Hardie buys himself a horse ranch and hires housekeeper and horse trainer
Jebediah Gaine. The widow he buys the ranch from, Ovie Swenson, lives at the
ranch next door with her two attractive daughters, one an adult school teacher
and the other a vivacious teenage tomboy. NBC tried the same approach in attempting
to revive
Laramie during the 1961-62
season: though it had always been a 1-hour program, they added color and a new
cast of supporting characters. Adding characters from older and younger
demographics than the main star was an attempt to attract more viewers from
those audience segments.
Wells Fargo
additionally decided to give Hardie a younger, more hot-headed sidekick by
introducing the character of Beau McCloud, played by
Jack Ging, in the season's
first episode "Casket 7.3" (September 30, 1961). But as Ging soon
discovered, the show was still all about Hardie and Dale Robertson. Robertson
himself once commented that he was not a fan of either the "adult"
westerns like
Gunsmoke or the kiddie
westerns that dominated the early 1950s and that he envisioned
Wells Fargo as more of an entire-family-oriented
program. This middle-of-the-road mentality perhaps explains why
Wells Fargo in Season 6 tried to be all
things to all demographics--roughly half the 1961 episodes revolve around
Hardie's ranch and the town Gloribee, while the other half have Hardie and
McCloud on the road tending to Wells Fargo business. Thus, it tried to
incorporate both the home-bound format of shows like
Bonanza,
The Rifleman,
and
Gunsmoke with the wandering hero
format of programs like
Cheyenne,
Have Gun -- Will Travel, and
Maverick. Though the cast added two
attractive young women as possible romantic interests for Hardie, he treats
them more like sisters and thus no sparks fly.
Ging quickly grew tired of being Robertson's glorified
waterboy and broke his contract, disappearing after the 13th episode, but this
was actually an opportunity to make better use of iconic character actor
William Demarest, who had been reduced to the role of buffoonish clown through
the first third of Season 6. The final 1961 episode, "Trackback"
(December 30, 1961), attempts to correct that one-dimensional portrayal by
having his character Jeb Gaine go through an existential crisis as the result
of reaching his 60th birthday and feeling that he was all washed up, or at
least considered so by Hardie and the Swensons. He is able to reclaim his
self-worth by using his experience and brains to send the outlaws trying to
break a colleague out of the Gloribee jail right into Hardie's arms.
Aging is a pervasive theme in the 1961 episodes of
Wells Fargo. Beginning with the Season 5
tale "The Has-Been" (January 16, 1961) which includes a former star
vocalist hallucinating about his deceased wife and former performing partner,
the series dwells on characters who are past their prime or trying to make up
for past transgressions. "Moment of Glory" (May 1, 1961) features a
grandfather trying to impress his young grandson with fabricated fictions of
his being an undercover government agent who has tangled with the likes of the
Clanton Gang at the OK Corral. "The Lobo" (May 8, 1961) centers
around retired outlaw Sam Horne trying to get his young daughter situated in a
proper school in Santa Fe while fending off attempts to force him back to his
criminal ways. "John Jones" (June 26, 1961) features another former
outlaw who returns to the town where his former partners have become
respectable citizens in an attempt to blackmail them after his own fortunes
have turned sour. "A Fistful of Pride" (November 18, 1961) focuses on
former boxing champion Bonzo Croydon trying to make a comeback to keep custody
of his daughter and win back his estranged wife. And "Defiant at the
Gate" (November 25, 1961) concerns aging robber Matt Blackner trying to
provide an inheritance for his daughter whom he neglected for 20 years by
entrusting her with $48,000 he stole and stiffed his former partners for.
Perhaps the producers sensed that
Wells
Fargo was also past its prime and needed to prepare for the hereafter.
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But while they may have made the right call in giving
Demarest a bigger, more well-rounded role after Ging's departure, their biggest
mistake for Season 6 was moving the program from its Monday night time slot to
Saturday night opposite
Perry Mason.
Lyons, in an interview with the Western Clippings web site, lays the blame for
the show's cancellation at the feet of new Universal Studios chief
Lew
Wasserman and his desire to cut costs, claiming that
Wells Fargo was still doing respectably well in ratings. But between
1960-61 and 1961-62
Perry Mason
jumped from #16 to #5 in the ratings. Some of that increase may have come at
the expense of
The Roaring 20s, which
was cancelled in January 1962 and was replaced with two even more forgettable
30-minute programs--the animated
Calvin
and the Colonel and the family sit-com
Room
for One More, neither of which survived past the end of the season. But
Perry Mason's climb may have also been
aided by its new NBC neighbor, which tried to be every kind of western under
the sun and wound up riding off into the sunset in 1962.
The new Season 6 theme for
Tales of Wells Fargo was written by
Harry Warren, one of the most
successful songwriters of the Great American Songbook. Born
Salvatore Antonio
Guaragna on December 24, 1893 in Brooklyn, Warren was one of 11 children of an
Italian bootmaker, whose accordion was his first instrument. By age 14 he was
playing drums professionally and dropped out of school two years later. By 1915
he was working for Vitagraph Motion Picture Studios not only performing administrative
tasks but also playing mood music on the piano for the performers, eventually
working his way up to assistant director before entering the U.S. Navy in 1918,
which is when he began writing songs. He is credited with some 800 compositions,
500 of which were published, and 21 of which reached #1 on
Your Hit Parade. Among his better-known works are "I Only Have
Eyes for You," "You'll Never Know," "There Will Never Be
Another You," "Lullaby of Broadway," "Jeepers
Creepers," "Chattanooga Choo-Choo," "You're Getting to Be a
Habit With Me," "That's Amore," and "At Last." He was
nominated for 11 Oscars and won 3 for "Lullaby of Broadway" (1935),
"You'll Never Know" (1943), and "On the Atchison, Topeka and the
Santa Fe" (1945). On television, he composed the themes for
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp and
The Californians, and his songs showed
up frequently on programs such as
77
Sunset Strip,
Hawaiian Eye, and
Surfside 6. He was the director of the
music publishing rights organization ASCAP from 1929 to 1932, and was elected
to the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1971. He died 10 years later at age 87 on
September 22, 1981.
The Actors
For the biography of Dale Robertson, see the 1960 post on Tales of Wells Fargo.
William Demarest
Carl William Demarest was born February 27, 1892 in St.
Paul, Minnesota, the son of a second-hand furniture salesman. His family moved
to New Jersey when he was a child and he formed an act playing cello with his
two brothers (his older brother Rube also became an actor in films) at local
resort hotels. He then began performing solo as a dancer and comedian as well
as a professional boxer under the name
Battling McGovern before joining the
U.S. Army during World War I. After the war he found fame working in
vaudeville, particularly after forming an act with his first wife
Estelle
Colette, whom he married in 1923 (she was 6 years older than he and had a child
from a previous marriage), billing themselves Demarest and Colette. From
vaudeville he moved on to Broadway and eventually Hollywood, though he failed
an initial screen test for
Jack Warner in 1926. But by the following year he
appeared in no fewer than 16 features and shorts, including the first talkie
short,
A Night at Coffee Dan's, and
the first talkie feature,
The Jazz Singer,
though he was not credited in the latter. He appeared in 7 more films in 1928
but was not fond of Hollywood and returned to vaudeville until his comedy act
was billed during an intermission between two
Mae West films in 1933, prompting
him to remark "If Mae West and Paramount are going to put me out of the
vaudeville business, I'll go back to Hollywood and join Paramount." In
1935 he appeared in the first of six films with
Fred MacMurray,
Hands Across the Table. In 1939 he
appeared in
Frank Capra's
Mr. Smith Goes
to Washington and the following year appeared in the first of eight films directed
by
Preston Sturges,
The Great McGinty.
He would go on to appear in Sturges' best known works such as
The Lady Eve,
Sullivan's Travels, and
The
Miracle of Morgan's Creek. By 1943 he was such a fixture in Hollywood
playing golden-hearted curmudgeons that he had a cameo playing himself in
Stage Door Canteen and did the same two
years later in
Duffy's Tavern. In
1946 he received his lone Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his
role as
Al Jolson's fictional mentor Steve Martin in
The Jolson Story, a role he would reprise in
Jolson Sings Again in 1949. By the late 1950s when his feature film
roles began diminishing, he moved into television starring as crochety music
publisher William Harris in
Love and
Marriage which lasted only 18 episodes before cancellation in late January
1960. He appeared 6 times as Mr. Daly on
The
Danny Thomas Show between 1957-61, and was added to the cast of
Tales of Wells Fargo as Jeb Gaine at the
beginning of Season 6 in the fall of 1961.
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After
Wells Fargo
was cancelled, Demarest's TV appearances were sparse, but he managed a few
high-profile feature film roles in
Son of
Flubber,
Viva Las Vegas,
It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, and
That Darn Cat! before he was tapped for
the biggest TV role of his career--succeeding William Frawley on
My Three Sons as former seaman Uncle
Charlie O'Casey, which he played for the remaining duration of the series from
1965-72. He received an Emmy nomination for this role in 1968, but after
My Three Sons, Demarest largely retired
to Palm Springs, except for an occasional guest spot on
McMillan and Wife or
Ellery
Queen, a couple of TV movies, and an appearance in
The Wild McCullochs and
Won
Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood. He busied himself running his own
charitable foundation and hosting a yearly golf tournament in Palm Springs, and
in 1979 he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He contracted
prostate cancer and suffered from pneumonia before dying from a heart attack on
December 27, 1983 at the age of 91.
Jack Ging
Jack Lee Ging was born in Alva, Oklahoma on November 30,
1931. Both sets of grandparents had participated in the Cherokee Strip Land Run
of 1893. His parents divorced when he was young, which led to him living with
various relatives due to his mother's unusual work hours as a waitress. For a
time he attended boarding school in Santa Fe, New Mexico but eventually
returned to Oklahoma when his mother became ill. He attended the University of
Oklahoma, where he played for three years on the football team and scored a
total of 5 touchdowns during a career that included an appearance in the 1954
Orange Bowl. After graduation he briefly played professionally with the
Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League before enlisting and serving
four years in the Marines. After being honorably discharged, Ging decided to
pursue an acting career after seeing
Tyrone Power in a theatrical production
and received a recommendation for an acting coach from Power. He studied at
Sandy Meisner's Playhouse in New York and by 1958 made his first TV appearance
on episodes of
The Rough Riders and
Highway Patrol. That year also marked
the first of 8 appearances on
McKenzie's
Raiders in various generic lieutenant roles. His military background also
came in handy in his first feature film appearance in
Rally Round the Flag, Boys! with
Paul Newman and
Joanne Woodward
also released in 1958. He landed his first starring role in the 1960 feature
Tess of the Storm Country opposite
Diane
Baker, followed by another military role in
Sniper's
Ridge in 1961 while also guest starring on TV programs such as
The Twilight Zone,
Bat Masterson, and
This Man
Dawson. His role as reformed Confederate sympathizer Beau McCloud on Season
6 of
Tales of Wells Fargo was his
first named recurring role, but it lasted only 13 episodes. Though Dale
Robertson, as a fellow Oklahoman, had lobbied for Ging to be cast as his
younger sidekick, Ging later recalled in an interview on the Western Clippings
web site that despite the show being expanded to an hour, it was still all
Robertson's show, and Ging's character didn't have much to do--"I was just
holding Dale Robertson's horse." So Ging says he just left the show and
was suspended for six months for breaking his contract, but he says since he
was being represented by MCA they managed to smooth things over.
The next season he was cast in his longest-running recurring
television role as young psychiatrist Dr. Paul Graham on
The Eleventh Hour co-starring
Wendell Corey, which ran two seasons
from 1962-64, during which Ging also crossed over the role of Graham on a 1963
episode of
Dr. Kildare. His acting
credits for the next few years were sparse, but the multi-talented athlete Ging
also excelled at golf, winning a Crosby golf tournament, as well as tennis,
winning the Clint Eastwood Celebrity Tennis tournament. He played for sometimes
thousands of dollars on golf-course bets with the likes of
Dean Martin and
James Garner. In 1967 he appeared on a two-part
The Magical World of Disney film that was spun off into the feature
Mosby's Marauders and the following
year appeared in the first of three
Clint Eastwood films--
Hang 'Em High, which would be followed by
Play Misty for Me and
High
Plains Drifter. In 1970 he made the first of seven appearances as Lt. Dan
Ives on
Mannix, the last coming in 1974.
Other guest spots in the 1970s included appearances on
The Six Million Dollar Man,
The
Bionic Woman, and
Kojak. In 1979
he played Det. Chuck Morris on the Brenda Vaccaro series
Dear Detective, which was canceled after 4 episodes. His next
recurring role was playing Lt. Ted Quinlan on the Vietnam vet adventure series
Riptide, appearing 30 times over 3
seasons before his character was killed off, which gave him the opportunity to
play Gen. Harlan "Bull" Fulbright 6 times during Season 4 of
The A-Team with Fulbright also getting
killed off by the end of the season. His last recurring role came as Chief
Hollings in the Palm Springs-based Connie Sellecca vehicle
P.S. I Luv U in 1991-92. His last acting credit came in a 1994
episode of
Wings. At age 88, he is
believed to be living in the Los Angeles area with his third wife
Sharon Ramona
Thompson.
Virginia Christine
Virginia Christine Ricketts was born in Stanton, Iowa, a
community largely of Swedish immigrants, including her mother, on March 5,
1920. With both parents being musicians, Christine studied piano and won
statewide honors while in high school in vocal and instrumental music. But her
real passion was acting, and at age 17 she won a nationwide drama competition
the same year her family moved to Los Angeles, where she then attended UCLA.
While in college she began working as a voice actor on radio, but her biggest
break came when she met German-born character actor
Fritz Feld, 20 years her
senior, and the couple married in 1940. Two years later Feld directed Christine
in a Los Angeles theatrical production of
Hedda
Gabler to which he invited representatives from the major movie studios,
resulting in a contract with Warner Brothers for Christine. She made her
feature film debut supporting
Errol Flynn in
Edge of Darkness playing a Norwegian peasant girl named,
ironically, Miss Olson. Though she was given a lead role in
Truck Busters opposite
Richard Travis
that same year, Warner Brothers dropped her after only a year, but she signed
with Universal Studios, appearing in the western
The Old Texas Trail and playing a female mummy alongside
Lon
Chaney, Jr. in
The Mummy's Curse. By
the mid-1940s she supplemented her film work with radio appearances on programs
such as
Romance,
Gunsmoke, and
Fort Laramie.
She had a supporting role in the 1946 film noir classic
The Killers and also appeared in the
Don Siegel remake in 1964. In
1950 she had her first role in a film produced by
Stanley Kramer,
The Men, which was also
Marlon Brando's
debut. Thereafter Kramer would use her often in pivotal roles in classics such
as
Cyrano de Bergerac,
High Noon,
Not as a Stranger,
Judgment
at Nuremberg, and
Guess Who's Coming
to Dinner? Other notable feature films included
Dragnet,
The Cobweb,
Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and
Elvis Presley's
Flaming Star. Her
television debut came with three appearances on the crime drama
Front Page Detective in 1951. By the
mid-1950s her television appearances outnumbered her feature film roles as she
had multiple guest spots on the original
Dragnet,
Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and
anthology series such as
Science Fiction
Theatre and
Studio 57. Her role
as widow Ovie Swenson on the final season of
Tales of Wells Fargo was the only recurring TV role of her career,
but not her best known because beginning in 1960 she began appearing as helpful
neighbor Mrs. Olson on commercials for Folgers coffee, a series that would
continue for 21 years and invite parodies by everyone from
Johnny Carson and
Jackie Gleason to
Ann-Margaret. Her hometown of Stanton, Iowa converted the
local water tower into a giant coffee pot in her honor.
Her workload did not diminish with the cancellation of
Tales of Wells Fargo in 1962; she
continued to find frequent guest-star work on
Perry Mason,
Wagon Train,
The Virginian, and
The F.B.I. through the remainder of the
1960s. Things finally began to slow down as Christine entered her 50s in the
1970s with occasional appearances on
Nanny
and the Professor,
Ironside, and
Kojak. In the late 1970s and early 1980s
she called on her past experience in radio drama to provide voice work on the
TV series
Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo
and
The Puppy's Further Adventures.
Her last on-screen appearance was in a 1986 episode of
The Insiders. In retirement she was made honorary mayor of
Brentwood, volunteered for Planned Parenthood, and judged the annual American
College Theatre Festival. Her husband of 53 years passed away in 1993, and
Christine followed him three years later on July 24, 1996 at the age of 76.
Mary Jane Saunders
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Born
Mary Jayne Saunders in Pasadena, California on October
12, 1943, Saunders was the daughter of an auto parts dealer and homemaker who
submitted her picture at age 5 to a casting call advertised by Paramount
Studios. Saunders was selected to play a 5-year-old girl in the 1949
Bob Hope
and
Lucille Ball comedy
Sorrowful Jones,
which also included future
Tales of Wells
Fargo castmate William Demarest. In 1950 she received third billing in the
William Holden comedy
Father Is a
Bachelor and starred along with
Ray Milland and
Rosalind Russell in
A Woman of Distinction. She made her TV
debut the following year with single guest spots on
The Bigelow Theatre,
Boston
Blackie, and
Front Page Detective,
but her career would slow down for the rest of the decade with feature roles in
The Girl Next Door in 1953 and not
another full-length movie for 6 years in uncredited parts in
The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker and
Beloved Infidel. Meanwhile, she had
occasional TV roles on
The Loretta Young
Show,
The Great Gildersleeve, and
The Danny Thomas Show, but she was averaging
only a single appearance per year until she landed the part of vivacious
teenager Mary Gee on the final season of
Tales
of Wells Fargo.
Television work picked up just a touch after
Wells Fargo with guest spots on
Wagon Train,
The Donna Reed Show,
My Three Sons, and
Daniel Boone. But after
appearances on
I Spy and
Petticoat Junction in 1966, Saunders
married professional baseball player
Jay Johnstone, then a member of the
California Angels, in 1967 and retired from acting. Johnstone played for nearly
20 seasons on 8 different teams, including 3 World Series champions, and was
known as a clubhouse prankster. He later worked as a radio announcer for the
New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies and appeared in the first
Naked Gun film.
Lory Patrick
Born
Loretta Basham on April 8, 1938 in Beckley, West
Virginia, Patrick has become more famous for her marriages than her acting
career. After beginning a career in modeling in Detroit and spending three
years in New York studying acting, she broke into television in 1961 with
appearances on
The Loretta Young Show
and
The Case of the Dangerous Robin
before being cast as Ovie Swenson's older daughter Tina on the final season of
Tales of Wells Fargo. She appeared in 15
episodes during the show's final season but found steady work thereafter with
guest spots on
Wagon Train,
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet,
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, and
Laramie over the next two years. She
made her feature film debut in 1964 in the teenage exploitation flick
Surf Party, even receiving a credit on
one song from the soundtrack album along with co-stars
Jackie DeShannon and
Patricia Morrow. She had three appearances as Nurse Betty Taylor in the final
season of
Dr. Kildare in 1965, but
then married irascible science fiction author
Harlan Ellison on January 30,
1966, a marriage that lasted less than two months. She had no acting credits
that year but returned for single appearances on
Bonanza and
This Is the Life
as well as an unnamed receptionist in the feature
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying in 1967, then
retired from acting. Nothing has been published about what she did over the
next 6 years, but on June 2, 1973 she married actor
Dean Jones, whom she had
played opposite in the 1961 episode "A Killing in Calico" (December
16, 1961) of
Tales of Wells Fargo.
Jones and Patrick became born-again Christians, and he became a spokesman for
Compassion International and later founded the Christian Rescue Fund to bring
persecuted Christians to safety. She wrote a best-selling religious book
Hearing God.
Jones passed away from Parkinson's Disease on
September 1, 2015, though Patrick is still living.
Steve Darrell
Born
Daryl Eugene Horsfall in Osage, Iowa on November 19,
1904, Darrell was one of four children and was still living with his parents as
of the 1930 U.S. census. The following year he began his acting career by
joining the Trousdale Players in Des Moines, Iowa. At some point he moved west
and made his feature film debut
in an
uncredited role as a gangster in the 1938 feature
Angels With Dirty Faces. His first screen credit came the next year
in
Code of the Secret Service and
from that point on he found steady work in minor parts in a steady stream of
B-grade westerns and crime dramas. At the same time, he kept up a theatrical
career, appearing in a Broadway production of
The Barber Had Two Sons in 1943 and a Los Angeles production of
Arsenic and Old Lace at the Beaux Arts
Theater in 1944. Perhaps his highest profile role in the 1940s was playing
Frank James opposite
Clayton Moore as
Jesse James in the 1948 serial
Adventures of Frank and Jesse James.
Playing in support of
Gene Autry in features such as
Riders in the Sky and
Cow
Town led to his television debut on
The
Gene Autry Show in 1950. As the 1950s progressed and the B-westerns faded,
Darrell switched over to the suddenly popular western TV format on programs
such as
The Lone Ranger,
Annie Oakley, and
The Adventures of Kit Carson. The more adult westerns of the later
1950s also provided steady work on
Cheyenne,
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp,
and
Wanted Dead or Alive. And in the
1960s he continued showing up on
Laramie,
Wagon Train, and
Shotgun Slade. His role as the Gloribee sheriff, who was eventually
named Hal Humphrey, on the final season of
Tales
of Wells Fargo was his only recurring role. Though he found a few more
guest spots afterward on
The Virginian,
Rawhide, and
Gunsmoke, Darrell logged his last credit on a 1967 episode of
Daniel Boone before succumbing to a
brain tumor three years later at the age of 65 on August 14, 1970.
Notable Guest Stars
Season 5, Episode 15, "Border Rengades":
John
Beradino (shown on the left, former major league baseball player, played Special Agent Steve Daniels
on
I Led 3 Lives, Sgt. Vince Cavelli
on
The New Breed, and Dr. Steve Hardy
on
General Hospital) plays gun
smuggler Virgil McCready.
Elaine Devry (daughter of a Disney animator who was
Mickey Rooney's fourth wife) plays mine owner Carolyn Robbins.
Season 5, Episode 16, "Captain Scofield":
DeForest
Kelley (shown on the right, played Dr. McCoy on
Star Trek) plays
wounded army deserter Capt. Cole Scofield.
William Keene (played various
reverends on
The Andy Griffith Show
and
Mayberry R.F.D.) plays Bull Creek
physician Dr. Crosier.
William Tannen (Deputy Hal Norton on
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp) plays
army imposter Keenan.
Season 5, Episode 17, "The Has-Been":
Adam West (shown on the left, played Det.
Sgt. Steve Nelson on
The Detectives,
Bruce Wayne on
Batman, Captain Rick
Wright on
The Last Precinct, Dr. Noah
Goddard on
Black Scorpion, and voiced
Mayor Adam West on
Family Guy) plays former
soldier and renowned gunman Steve Draco.
Andra Martin (former wife of Ty
Hardin, starred in
The Big Beat,
The Thing That Couldn't Die,
Up Periscope, and
A Fever in the Blood) plays army widow Laura Halliday.
J. Pat
O'Malley (see the biography section for the 1961 post on
Frontier Circus) plays has-been singer Cedric Manning.
Hal Needham
(Hollywood's highest-paid stuntman who invented numerous stunt devices, was a
double for Richard Boone and Burt Reynolds, and directed
Smokey and the Bandit,
Hooper,
and
Cannonball Run) plays an unnamed
outlaw.
Marshall Reed (Inspector Fred Asher on
The Lineup) plays an army officer.
Season 5, Episode 18, "Town Against a Man":
Val Avery
(appeared in
The Magnificent Seven,
Papillon, and
Donnie Brasco and played Lt. Al Costello on
East Side/West Side) plays ranch owner Frank "Bully"
Armstrong.
Jackie Russell (shown on the right, played Peggy Connolly on
The Joey Bishop Show) plays his pretty daughter Lorna.
Yvette
Vickers (starred in
Reform School Girl,
Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, and
Attack of the Giant Leeches) plays his
plain daughter Carol.
Lurene Tuttle (appeared in
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House,
Ma Barker's Killer Brood,
Psycho,
The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, and
The
Fortune Cookie and played Doris Dunston on
Father of the Bride and Hannah Yarby on
Julia) plays Frank's sister Madie.
Mark Tapscott (see the biography
section for the 1961 post on
The Tall Man)
plays wealthy banker Paul Warren.
Michael Hinn (George Haig on
Johnny Ringo) plays attorney Leo
Kinsman.
Season 5, Episode 19, "The Barefoot Bandit":
Don
C. Harvey (see the biography section for the 1961 post on
Rawhide) plays Wells Fargo agent Al Wiley.
Joan Marshall (Sailor
Duval on
Bold Venture) plays fight
manager Lisa Lindsey.
Paul Sorensen (Andy Bradley on
Dallas) plays Bonanza Flats tough guy Chuck Kramer.
George Selk (see
the biography section for the 1960 post on
Gunsmoke)
plays a telegraph messenger.
Season 5, Episode 20, "The Hand That Shook the
Hand":
Claude Akins (shown on the left, played Sonny Pruett on
Movin'
On and Sheriff Elroy P. Lobo on
B.J
and the Bear and on
Lobo) plays
renowned pugilist John L. Sullivan.
Vito Scotti (Jose on
The Deputy, Capt. Gaspar Fomento on
The Flying Nun, Gino on
To
Rome With Love, and Mr. Velasquez on
Barefoot
in the Park) plays hustling prankster Abner Dabler.
Thalmus Rasulala (starred
in
Cool Breeze,
Blacula,
Willie Dynamite,
and
Mr. Ricco and played Lt. Jack
Neal on
One Life to Live, Bill Thomas
on
What's Happening!!, Tangeneva on
General Hospital, and Capt. Boltz on
Dragnet (1989)) plays saloon cook George.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDVn6wjIg-JlUOJuRs5RtOPO-Ogf-PDH6v4rsqeT1GstvNyNSdyyNt0vwwZwOGRoYBWXJAln9C4BDJFJxSunCe2ou1EZm6vhqE-5XBWJqMOEytp4DcvYacAo0rHSte5ltCYtI6MhP9HBg/s1600/Jack+Nicholson-Tales+of+Wells+Fargo.jpg)
Season 5, Episode 21, "That
Washburn Girl":
Jack Nicholson (shown on the right, starred in
Five Easy Pieces,
Easy Rider,
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,
Chinatown,
The Shining, and
Terms of Endearment
and played Jaime Angel on
Dr. Kildare)
plays Wells Fargo worker's brother Tom Washburn.
Anne Whitfield (Barbara Harris
on
Days of Our Lives) plays his
fiance Ruby Coe.
Morris Ankrum (starred in
Rocketship
X-M,
Invaders From Mars,
Earth vs. The Flying Saucers, and
The Giant Claw and played the judge 22
times on
Perry Mason) plays her
ex-con father Jonas.
John Archer (father of Anne Archer, former husband of
Marjorie Lord, appeared in
White Heat,
Ten Thousand Bedrooms,
Blue Hawaii, and
How to Frame a Figg) plays gun salesman Dean Chase.
Chubby Johnson
(Concho on
Temple Houston) plays
stage driver Scotty.
Season 5, Episode 22, "The Diamond Dude": James
Millhollin (Anson Foster on Grindl)
plays New York jeweler Leroy Finch. Robert Middleton (Barney Wales on The Monroes) plays notorious thief Bodie
Seaton. Grant Sullivan (Brett Clark on Pony
Express) plays Seaton's associate Beam.
Season 5, Episode 24, "Fraud":
Steve Brodie (see
the biography section for the 1960 post on
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp)
plays
crooked Mayor Walt Lawson.
Sue Ane Langdon (shown on the left, played Kitty Marsh on
Bachelor Father, Lillian Nuvo on
Arnie, Rosie on
Grandpa Goes
to Washington, and Darlene on
When
the Whistle Blows) saloon pianist Jessica Brown.
Guy Stockwell (brother of
Dean Stockwell, played Chris Parker on
Adventures
in Paradise) plays her boyfriend Bob Guthrie.
Gregg Palmer (see the
biography section for the 1961 post on
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp) plays Lawson's gunman Lupo.
Michael Whalen (starred
in
White Fang,
Career Woman,
The Lady
Escapes,
Inside Story, and
The Phantom From 10,000 Leagues) plays photographer
Abel Boyce.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDa8AcfKn03b-JJrHfWa2vZbGaqy56PBot6b4d_PhVyoFIuUdFEJE1gVvEWGZ-zjDeywLG4BRffRDH8jftZRa3OSfV0-vU3ONZEzU8rfoOp6m6YdQ5Vlp3ydLDceLLzJcwhV6-oqh2gLo/s1600/Brad+Dexter-Tales+of+Wells+Fargo.jpg)
Season 5, Episode 25, "Stage From Yuma":
Brad
Dexter (shown on the right, starred in
Macao,
Between Heaven and Hell, and
Run Silent, Run Deep) plays wanted
outlaw Bud Pierce.
Kelly Thordsen (Colorado Charlie on
Yancy Derringer) plays outlaw ringleader Rafe.
Harry Harvey, Jr. (son
of Harry Harvey, and script supervisor and director on
Mannix) plays outlaw Lew Walter.
Tom Greenway (Sheriff Jack Bronson
on
State Trooper) plays the Yuma
sheriff.
Season 5, Episode 26, "Prince Jim":
Gina Gillespie
(shown on the left, played Tess on
Law of the Plainsman and
Mimi Scott on
Karen) plays orphan
Carol Butler.
Kristine Miller (appeared in
Desert
Fury,
I Walk Alone,
Too Late for Tears, and
Young Daniel Boone and played Margaret
Jones on
Stories of the Century)
plays her aunt Ruth Hudson.
Norman Leavitt (Ralph on
Trackdown) plays drummer Willy Zane.
Denny Scott Miller (see the
biography section of the 1961 post on
Wagon Train) plays livery stable owner Stickson.
Robert Sampson (Sgt. Walsh on
Steve Canyon, Father Mike Fitzgerald on
Bridget Love Bernie, and Sheriff Turk
Tobias on
Falcon Crest) plays his
accomplice Hal.
Wally Brown (appeared in
Notorious,
The Left Handed Gun, and
The Absent-Minded Professor and played
Jed Fame on
Cimarron City and
Chauncey Kowalski on
The Roaring '20's)
plays town drunk Charlie.
Season 5, Episode 27, "The Remittance Man":
William
Mims (see the biography section for the 1960 post on
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp) plays Blazing Rock Sheriff Dan
Gillette.
Yvonne Craig (shown on the right, starred in
Gidget,
High Time,
Kissin' Cousins,
Ski Party,
and
One Spy Too Many and played
Barbara Gordon, aka Batgirl, on
Batman
and Grandma on
Olivia) plays his
daughter Libby.
David Frankham (appeared in
Return
of the Fly,
Master of the World,
and
King Rat and played Reverend
Daniels on
The Bold and the Beautiful)
plays her fiance Noel Briggs.
Ron Soble (appeared in
The Cincinnati Kid,
True Grit,
and
Papillon and played Dirty Jim on
The Monroes) plays bounty hunter Gabe
Adams.
Henry Wills (Pernell Roberts' stunt double on
Bonanza and the stunt coordinator on
The High Chaparral) plays stage driver Wally.
Season 5, Episode 28, "The Jealous Man":
Ed Nelson
(Michael Rossi on
Peyton Place, Ward
Fuller on
The Silent Force, and Sen.
Mark Denning on
Capitol) plays jealous
husband Andy Thorpe.
Faith Domergue (starred in
Cult of the Cobra,
This
Island Earth, and
It Came From
Beneath the Sea) plays his wife Kitty.
John Zaremba (Special Agent Jerry
Dressler on
I Led 3 Lives, Dr. Harold
Jensen on
Ben Casey, Admiral Hardesy
on
McHale's Navy, Dr. Raymond Swain
on
The Time Tunnel, and Dr, Harlem
Danvers on
Dallas) plays his father
Henry.
Tommy Ivo (shown on the left, see the biography section for the 1961 post on
The Donna Reed Show) plays his younger
brother Lou.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh6tGxE27fFO8u6rEdVyYkdUl4-TQD0nmdq_hDUS0qZwkoLwGYfTFFwTzpOxh3oehqpDP4_DvwyQpkE3OuRaAeRw0Ow0Qb4LIFsYrlWwB5zb9o0IGr8wolgq4Ycl86Mslfd2HbYEDZXPQ/s1600/Leonard+Nimoy-James+Seay+-+Tales+of+Wells+Fargo.jpg)
Season 5, Episode 29, "Something Pretty":
Peter
Whitney (Sergeant Buck Sinclair on
The
Rough Riders and Lafe Crick on
The
Beverly Hillbillies) plays prospector Moose Gilliam.
James Seay (shown on the near right, see the
biography section for the 1960 post on
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp) plays easterner Banning.
Leonard Nimoy (shown on the far right, played Mr.
Spock on
Star Trek, Paris on
Mission: Impossible, and Dr. William
Bell on
Fringe) plays outlaw Coleman.
Dennis Moore (Deputy Lee on
Tombstone Territory) plays lawman Marshal Buxton.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrjnmH_8sAUfrbA2s1gLIc7YkAiuEI2-gBPUoCMZROOFqvhcB0m2B_6cB2zPMsiWS2MOos6B3uK5EH_KFz5egIPVUmXnH8Rr7K1eum9RJ7QEQUf-5oPvjhN2n-fNxVFIlMRtPKrOQpKwk/s1600/Robert+Armstrong-Tales+of+Wells+Fargo.jpg)
Season 5, Episode 30, "Lady Trouble":
Robert
Armstrong (shown on the left, starred in
King Kong,
The Son of Kong,
Framed,
Dive Bomber,
Blood on the Sun, and
Mighty Joe Young and played Sheriff Andy
Anderson on
State Trooper) plays Saddle
Ridge Wells Fargo agent Jess Walden.
Josephine Hutchinson (appeared in
The Story of Louis Pasteur,
Son of Frankenstein,
Tom Brown's Schooldays, and
North by Northwest) plays mining company
owner Agatha Webster.
Barry Cahill (Capt. Curt Douglas on
12 O'Clock High and Buck Vernon on
The Waltons) plays outlaw Stu Redmond.
Terry Frost (Sgt. Bruce
Moore/Morse/Morris on
Highway Patrol)
plays a Wells Fargo guard.
Season 5, Episode 31, "Moment of Glory":
Eddy
Waller (shown on the right, see the biography section for the 1961 post on
Laramie) plays yarn-spinning Grandpa Charlie Bridger.
Bryan Russell
(brother of actress Jeannie Russell) plays his grandson Pete.
Wallace Rooney (Andrew
Winters on
The Doctors) plays Calico
Wells Fargo agent Mr. Bennett.
Joel Ashley (Pvt. Boone on
Boots and Saddles) plays rival stagecoach line owner Bart Dillon.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5pYU9XWwB8Li23MJSAgISZ6vRJL1-hRzkZqhRspsydtXHY2luDsDW5fpI6PHMuLsM7RW5aHbns8fbElUecpsicWP0UyoQbaLOorv1Wr6xvQbW4bwjdhyhxXMob31msiuNLroGR-G7rU8/s1600/Jim+Davis-Tales+of+Wells+Fargo.jpg)
Season 5, Episode 32, "The Lobo":
Jim Davis (shown on the left, played Matt
Clark on
Stories of the Century, Wes
Cameron on
Rescue 8, Marshal Bill
Winter on
The Cowboys, and Jock Ewing
on
Dallas) plays wanted outlaw Sam
Horne.
Claire du Brey (starred in
The
Winged Mystery,
The Magic Eye,
Modern Love, and
Jane Eyre (1934) and played Aunt Angela on
Where's Raymond?) plays White Oaks Hotel proprietor Ma.
Charles
Watts (Judge Harvey Blandon on
Bachelor Father) plays White Oaks Wells Fargo agent Hi Walker.
Chubby Johnson (see
"That Washburn Girl" above) plays returns as stage driver Scotty.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_CKEAFYc1FbQHhbPD_4XUjzsn1S8kSMbs2kNEQwo2ABpENyb9eym6daXhl0KU-hEMpRWZ4_90SET36k3R72gupuqdJeGIh4xsc_GuKG47nt4U3wLCknqcKJVxKyfA-t3LVHRSoZ5TNuU/s1600/Carleton+Young-Tales+of+Wells+Fargo.jpg)
Season 5, Episode 33, "Rifles for Red Hand":
Ziva
Rodann (appeared in
Forty Guns,
The Private Lives of Adam and Eve,
The Story of Ruth, and
College Confidential and played
Nefertiti on
Batman) plays casino and
saloon owner Leah Harper.
Stanley Adams (Lt. Morse on
Not for Hire) plays gun smuggler Sam Tustin.
Carleton G. Young (shown on the right, appeared
in
Queen of Burlesque,
The Kissing Bandit,
His Kind of Woman, and
Hard,
Fast and Beautiful! and played Harry Steeger on
The Court of Last Resort) plays U.S. Army Capt. Rawlings.
Clegg
Hoyt (Mac on
Dr. Kildare) plays trapper
Jebediah Skane.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwWbaMEdP0j7s8J1QPpCdrDPZqlsrnkSUXWtverz3cabXsWQE8SpgH1b9GJvSzLrqcFbFMsr_1W6H84XPs2rkCbhUPaRisbzpijmii6GZDXXcaI4G5AL7MKzD1fqBpyaT4t05-lIyYDNU/s1600/Robert+Foulk-Tales+of+Wells+Fargo.jpg)
Season 5, Episode 34, "Gunman's Revenge":
Harry
Carey, Jr. (starred in
Red River,
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon,
Mister Roberts, and
The Searchers and played Bill Burnett on
The Adventures of Spin and Marty) plays Yuma Wells Fargo employee
Pete Carter.
Jennie Lynn (Jennie Baker on
Love
and Marriage) plays his daughter Nell.
Roy Wright (Callahan on
The Islanders) plays his boss Neil Brand.
Ollie O'Toole (Mr. Meeker on
Circus Boy)
plays Wells Fargo clerk Al Wiley.
Robert Foulk (shown on the left, played Ed Davis on
Father Knows Best, Sheriff Miller on
Lassie, Joe Kingston on
Wichita Town, Mr. Wheeler on
Green Acres, and Phillip Toomey on
The Rifleman) plays Yuma Sheriff Nolan.
Chuck Connors (see the biography section for the 1960 post on
The Rifleman) plays vengeful gunman
Rocky Nelson.
Helen Wallace (Nurse Lucy Webber on
Dr. Kildare) plays judge's wife Mrs. Castro.
Season 5, Episode 35, "The Repentant Outlaw":
Edgar
Buchanan (shown on the right, played Uncle Joe Carson on
The Beverly
Hillbillies,
Green Acres, and
Petticoat Junction, Red Connors on
Hopalong Cassidy, Judge Roy Bean on
Judge Roy Bean, Doc Burrage on
The Rifleman, and J.J. Jackson on
Cade's County) plays huckster Doc Dawson.
Lew Gallo (Major Joseph Cobb on
12
O'Clock High and directed multiple episodes of
That Girl,
The Ghost and Mrs.
Muir,
Love American Style,
Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, and
The New Mike Hammer) plays captured
outlaw Maxey.
John Dennis (Dutch Schultz on
The Lawless Years) plays his accomplice Red.
Craig Duncan (Sgt.
Stanfield/Banfield on
Mackenzie's Raiders)
plays army payroll Sgt. Morgan.
Ralph Reed (see the biography section for the
1960 post on
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp) plays a young swindler in the saloon.
Season 5, Episode 36, "A Quiet Little Town":
John
Dehner (Duke Williams on
The Roaring
'20's, Commodore Cecil Wyntoon on
The
Baileys of Balboa, Morgan Starr on
The
Virginian, Cyril Bennett on
The Doris
Day Show, Dr. Charles Cleveland Claver on
The New Temperatures Rising Show, Barrett Fears on
Big Hawaii, Marshal Edge Troy on
Young Maverick, Lt. Joseph Broggi on
Enos, Hadden Marshall on
Bare Essence, and Billy Joe Erskine on
The Colbys) plays Hardie's old frenemy
Wade Cather.
Shirley Ballard (shown on the left, Miss California of 1944, wife of Jason Evers,
continuity supervisor on
Water Under the
Bridge and
The Sullivans) plays unhappy
marshal's wife Meg Prescott.
William Leslie (appeared in
The Long Gray Line,
Hellcats
of the Navy,
Up Periscope, and
Mutiny in Outer Space and was the
narrator on
The Prosecutors: In Pursuit
of Justice) plays banker Thorne Whitman.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlHjfoO3pTZFkx96onHTp4F16d9jLk1tDvAUFjCEnoeOBdN7fLFqrL7JLYlkXrs-W-IYLNgrEoIsBYhpDYA0dXXeEKo7n2j1LbQfISJoZH2IAij5JPcpedbVeQwBRPd4JkbLRl0RyVcVY/s1600/Phyllis+Coates-Tales+of+Wells+Fargo.jpg)
Season 5, Episode 37, "Bitter Vengeance":
Richard
Hale (starred in
Abilene Town,
Kim,
San
Antone,
Red Garters, and
To Kill a Mockingbird) plays alcoholic
stage waystation owner Ben Martin.
Phyllis Coates (shown on the right, played Alice McDokes in 18 shorts,
starred in
Outlaws of Texas,
Man From Sonora,
Superman and the Mole-Men,
Jungle
Drums of Africa, and
I Was a Teenage
Frankenstein, and played Lois Lane on
Adventures
of Superman, Gloria on
The Duke,
Madge Allen on
Professional Father,
and Clarissa Holliday on
This Is Alice)
plays his daughter Ruby.
Season 5, Episode 38, "John Jones":
Justice Watson
(J.W. Harrington on
Holiday Lodge)
plays former outlaw John Jones.
Roy Barcroft (Col. Logan on
The Adventures of Spin and Marty and Roy
on
Gunsmoke) plays his former partner
Clem Boland.
Warren Oates (starred in
In
the Heat of the Night,
The Wild Bunch,
and
Stripes and played Ves
Painter on
Stoney Burke) plays
Boland's son Chuck.
Forrest Lewis (Mr. Peavey on
The Great Gildersleeve) plays small-town Marshal Ezra.
Season 5, Episode 39, "The Dowry":
Alan Napier (shown on the left, appeared
in
The House of the Seven Gables,
Lassie Come Home,
Joan of Arc,
Marnie,
The Loved One, and
Batman: The Movie and played Gen. Steele on
Don't Call Me Charlie and Alfred the butler on
Batman) plays wealthy land owner Bertram Le Tour.
Lisa Gaye (Gwen
Kirby on
How to Marry a Millionaire)
plays his grand-daughter Michelle Bovarde.
George Chandler (Mac Benson on
Waterfront, Uncle Petrie Martin on
Lassie, and Ichabod Adams on
Ichabod and Me) plays riverboat Capt.
Billy.
Season 6, Episode 1, "Casket 7.3":
Howard Keel (shown on the right, starred
in
Annie Get Your Gun,
Show Boat,
Kiss Me Kate,
Seven Brides
for Seven Brothers,
Kismet, and
Invasion of the Triffids and played
Clayton Farlow on
Dallas) plays former
Confederate sergeant Justin Brox.
Suzanne Lloyd (Raquel Toledano on
Zorro) plays his wife Christine.
Torin
Thatcher (appeared in
Great Expectations,
The Crimson Pirate,
The Robe,
Love is a Many-Splendored Thing, and
Witness for the Prosecution) plays government agent Alexander
Prescott.
Stephen Roberts (Stan Peeples on
Mr.
Novak) plays eastern head of Wells Fargo Mr. Nichols.
Eve McVeagh (starred
in
High Noon,
The Glass Web, and
Tight Spot
and played Miss Hammond on
Petticoat
Junction) plays Mrs. Russo, a guest at Brox's party.
Norman Leavitt (see
"Prince Jim" above) plays Matthew, a clerk aboard the Wells Fargo
ship.
Season 6, Episode 2, "The Dodger":
Philip Carey (shown on the left, starred
in
I Was a Communist for the FBI, Inside
the Walls of Folsom Prison,
Calamity
Jane,
Mister Roberts,
Dead Ringer, and
Three For Texas and played Lt. Michael Rhodes on
Tales of the 77th Bengal Lancers, Philip
Marlowe on
Philip Marlowe, Capt.
Edward Parmalee on
Laredo, and Asa
Buchanan on
One Life to Live) plays ex-con
Jay Squire.
Claude Akins (see "The Hand That Shook the Hand" above) plays
his "lieutenant" Harry Rakeover.
Jon Lormer (Harry Tate on
Lawman, Sam Watkins on
The Real McCoys, the autopsy surgeon on
Perry Mason, Simon Benjamin on
The Young Marrieds, and Judge Irwin A.
Chester on
Peyton Place) plays general
store proprietor Mr. Taylor.
Paul Barselou (played various bartenders in 9
episodes of
Bewitched) plays barber
and undertaker Happy.
Season 6, Episode 3, "Treasure Coach":
Robert
Vaughn (shown on the right, starred in
Teenage Cave Man,
The Magnificent Seven,
The Towering Inferno, and
Bullitt and played Capt. Ray Rambridge
on
The Lieutenant, Napoleon Solo on
The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Harry Rule on
The Protectors, Harlan Adams on
Emerald Point N.A.S., Gen. Hunt
Stockwell on
The A-Team, and Albert
Stroller on
Hustle) plays outlaw Billy
Brigode.
Pat Crowley (Joan Nash on
Please
Don't Eat the Daisies, Georgia Cameron on
Joe Forrester, Emily Fallmont on
Dynasty, and Natalie DeWitt on
The
Bold and the Beautiful) plays his estranged wife Lydia.
J. Pat O'Malley (see
"The Has-Been" above) plays physician Dr. Cobb.
Jocelyn Brando (Marlon
Brando's sister, appeared in
The Big Heat,
The Ugly American,
The Chase, and
Mommie Dearest and played Mrs. Reeves on
Dallas) plays his wife Frances.
Season 6, Episode 4, "Death Raffle":
Gary Clarke (shown on the left, played Dick
Hamilton on
Michael Shayne, Steve
Hill on
The Virginian, and Capt.
Richards on
Hondo) plays ex-con Davey
Hewitt.
Kelly Thordsen (see "Stage From Yuma" above) plays blacksmith
Sam Hobb.
Bennye Getteys (Judith Potter on
The
Brighter Day) plays Hobb's daughter Jessamie.
William Tannen (see
"Captain Scofield" above) plays banker Mr. Japes.
Gregg Palmer (see
"Fraud" above) plays Hewitt's former outlaw partner Steger.
Grant
Sullivan (see "The Diamond Dude" above) plays Steger's accomplice
Dutch.
Paul Bryar (Sheriff Harve Anders on
The
Long, Hot Summer) plays railroad clerk Sam.
Season 6, Episode 5, "Tanoa":
Richard Hale (see
"Bitter Vengeance" above) plays aging Indian chief Pochalo.
Rodolfo
Acosta (shown on the right, played Vaquero on
The High Chaparral))
plays his cousin Red Knife.
Charles Watts (see "The Lobo" above)
plays Wells Fargo executive Mr. Anderson.
Hal Needham (see "The
Has-Been" above) plays an Indian brave.
Sara Taft (Aunt Alex on
The Young Marrieds) plays baking contest
judge Mrs. Forbes.
Season 6, Episode 6, "Mr. Mute":
Vito Scotti (shown on the left, see
"The Hand That Shook the Hand" above) plays Italian professional
clown Mr. Mute.
Lyle Bettger (starred in
The
Vanquished,
Destry, and
The Fastest Guitar Alive and played Sam
Larsen on
The Court of Last Resort
and Harry Driscoll on
The Grand Jury)
plays train robber LaPorte.
Ron Soble (see "The Remittance Man" above)
plays his accomplice Frank Dorcus.
Chubby Johnson (see "That Washburn
Girl" above) plays Jeb Gaine antagonist Ernie.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRnp7um8GWoWyzgyRwcSApXkjecxPWfv3agM8sGcxFCw7y3vMRldo7AvgPlnIF0Tc_1F10QKUbxnmFYQb6J3KpiQzgO318ssSCjm9CProEww93nALiIyK3cuMcW6vm5vkCaZY1IR3SzA0/s1600/Albert+Salmi-Tales+of+Wells+Fargo.jpg)
Season 6, Episode 7, "Jeremiah":
Albert Salmi (shown on the right, played Yadkin
on
Daniel Boone and Pete Ritter on
Petrocelli) plays outlaw Jeremiah Logart.
Nancy Gates (starred in
The Great
Gildersleeve,
The Atomic City,
The Member of the Wedding, and
Some Came Running) plays his former henchman's
widow Amelia Cavendish.
Bryan Russell (see "Moment of Glory" above)
plays her son Jody.
X Brands (Pahoo-Ka-Ta-Wah on
Yancy Derringer) plays Logart associate Brock.
Season 6, Episode 8, "A Fistful of Pride":
Eddie
Albert (shown on the left, starred in
Roman Holiday,
Oklahoma!,
The Teahouse of the August Moon,
The Sun Also Rises,
The
Longest Day, and
The Longest Yard
and played Larry Tucker on
Leave It to
Larry, Oliver Wendell Douglas on
Green
Acres and
Petticoat Junction, and
Frank MacBride on
Switch) plays former
boxing champion Bonzo Croydon.
Barbara Stuart (Bessie on
The Great Gildersleeve, Alice on
Pete and Gladys, Bunny on
Gomer
Pyle, U.S.M.C., Wilma Winslow on
The
Queen and I, Peggy Ferguson on
The
McLean Stevenson Show, Marianne Danzig on
Our Family Honor, and Alice on
Huff)
plays his estranged wife Lucy.
Gina Gillespie (see "Prince Jim" above)
plays their daughter Cindy.
Ed Nelson (see "The Jealous Man" above)
plays up-and-coming boxer The Frisco Kid.
David White (Larry Tate on
Bewitched) plays his manager Dooley.
H.M. Wynant (Lt. Bauer on
The Young
Marrieds, Frosty on
Batman,
and Ed Chapman on
Dallas) plays San Francisco gambler Carson.
Dennis McCarthy (Dr.
Sam Hodges on
Cimarron City) plays
Gloribee bettor Willis.
Harry Holcombe (appeared in
The Fortune Cookie,
The
Unsinkable Molly Brown,
Foxy Brown,
Escape to Witch Mountain, and
Empire of the Ants and played Frank
Gardner on
Search for Tomorrow, Doc
Benson on
My Mother the Car, Mr.
Kendricks on
Barefoot in the Park,
and Dr. J.P. Martin on
Bonanza) plays
the Gloribee judge.
Season 6, Episode 9, "Defiant at the Gate":
Tom
Tully (starred in
Destination Tokyo,
The Lady in the Lake,
The Turning Point,
The Jazz Singer (1952), and
The
Caine Mutiny and played Inspector Matt Grebb on
The Lineup and Tom Starett on
Shane)
plays aging outlaw Matt Blackner.
Gloria Talbott (shown on the right, starred in
The Cyclops,
Daughter of Dr. Jekyll,
and
I Married a Monster From Outer Space and
played Moneta on
Zorro) plays his
daughter Narcissa.
Frank Ferguson (Gus Broeberg on
My Friend Flicka, Eli Carson on
Peyton
Place, and Dr. Barton Stuart on
Petticoat
Junction) plays his former partner Deacon.
L.Q. Jones (Beldon on
The Virginian, Sheriff Lew Wallace on
The Yellow Rose, and Nathan Wayne on
Renegade) plays his former partner
Striker.
Season 6, Episode 10, "Man of Another Breed":
Wright
King (shown on the left, see the biography section for the 1960 post on
Wanted Dead or Alive) plays young robber Will Norris.
Robert
Middleton (see "The Diamond Dude" above) plays homesteader Caleb
Timmons.
Debra Paget (starred in
Broken
Arrow,
Les Miserables,
Prince Valiant,
The Ten Commandments,
Love Me
Tender, and
Journey to the Lost City)
plays his young wife Kate.
Dee Pollock (Billy Urchin on
Gunslinger) plays his son Arly.
Willis Bouchey (Mayor Terwilliger
on
The Great Gildersleeve, Springer
on
Pete and Gladys, and the judge 23
times on
Perry Mason) plays aging
Wells Fargo agent Frank Danes.
John Zaremba (see "The Jealous Man"
above) plays a sheriff.
Season 6, Episode 11, "Kelly's Clover Girls":
Virginia
Field (appeared in
Little Lord Fauntleroy,
Thank You, Jeeves!,
Stage Door Canteen, and
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court)
plays madame Kelly Green.
Dawn Wells (shown on the right, played Mary Ann Summers on
Gilligan's Island) plays her young understudy Molly.
Lisa Gaye (see
"The Dowry" above) plays her more experienced employee Sunset.
Michael
Pate (starred in
Face to Face,
Julius Caesar,
Hondo, and
Tower of London
and played Chief Vittoro on
Hondo and
Det. Sgt. Vic Maddern on
Matlock)
plays wanted killer Paul Jennings Kalo.
Hank Patterson (Fred Ziffel on
Green Acres and
Petticoat Junction and Hank Miller on
Gunsmoke) plays transport driver Coleman Flagg.
William Mims (see
"The Remittance Man" above) plays trail boss Canby.
Glenn Strange
(see the biography section for the 1961 post on
Gunsmoke) plays one of his drovers Sam Craiger.
Phil Chambers (see
"Gunman's Revenge" above) plays Wells Fargo agent Bill.
Season 6, Episode 12, "A Killing in Calico":
Dean
Jones (shown on the left, starred in
Jailhouse Rock,
That Darn Cat!,
The Ugly Dachshund,
The Love
Bug,
The Million Dollar Duck, and
Beethoven and played Ensign O'Toole
on
Ensign O'Toole, Linc McCray on
The Chicago Teddy Bears, and Jim Douglas
on
Herbie, the Love Bug) plays outlaw
gunman Jamie Coburn.
Patricia Breslin (Amanda Peoples Miller on
The People's Choice, Laura Brooks on
Peyton Place, and Meg Bentley on
General Hospital) plays his wife Theresa.
John Larch (starred in
The Wrecking Crew,
Play Misty for Me, and
Dirty Harry and played Deputy District
Attorney Jerry Miller on
Arrest and Trial,
Gerald Wilson on
Dynasty, and Arlen
& Atticus Ward on
Dallas) plays
former employer Birch Morgan.
George Brenlin (Benny on
General Hospital and Duke Dukowski on
Adam-12) plays gun for hire Wolf.
Byron Foulger (Mr. Nash on
Captain Nice and Wendell Gibbs on
Petticoat Junction) plays a telegrapher.
Herb Vigran (Judge Brooker on
Gunsmoke)
plays a clothier.
Season 6, Episode 14, "Trackback":
Leo Gordon (Big
Mike McComb on
Maverick) plays wanted
robber Frank Lambert.
Richard Rust (Hank Tabor on
Sam Benedict and Jason Vining on
General Hospital) plays his younger brother Wally.
Morgan Woodward
(shown on the right, see the biography section for the 1960 post on
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp) plays Frank's accomplice Steve
Taggart.
Edward Mallory (Bill Riley on
Morning
Star and Bill Horton on
Days of Our
Lives) plays Gloribee deputy Ron.