As another Lamer Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
I was watching Richard Boone in Have Gun - Will Travel, and noticed that Ken Curtis who would become infamous as Festus Haggen on Gunsmoke guest starred on the series.
Have Gun - Will Travel (TV Series)
Lucky Laski / Tom Strickland / Monk - Pelt Scavenger / ...
- Pandora's Box
(1962)
... Lucky Laski
- Soledad Crossing
(1961)
... Tom Strickland
- Love's Young Dream
(1960)
... Monk - Pelt Scavenger
- The Naked Gun
(1959)
... Skinner Monk
- The Posse
(1959)
... Curley - Posse Member
It is The Naked Gun which stunned me, because it was the genesis of the character which Ken Curtis would portray on Gunsmoke. Skinner Monk. Curtis had a character very close to Ernest T. Bass as portrayed by the brilliant Howard Morris on the Andy Griffith show, which is one of my favorite acting rolls of all time.
"Have Gun - Will Travel" The Naked Gun (TV Episode 1959 ...
Directed by Andrew V. McLaglen. With Richard Boone, Ken Curtis, Robert J. Wilke, Lane Chandler. Monk, a grubby and somewhat eccentric cattle thief, latches on to Paladin in the hopes that he will protect him against Rook, a nasty and vicious trail boss.
I am going to have more on this in the future, as Have Gun is one of the most influential series which was ever produced for television. To admire the work of Ken Curtis who began his career with John Wayne, along with Ben Johnson, who were both most accomplished equestrians in She Wore A Yellow Ribbon.
Jay Sims wrote the script for this character and it was Curtis who brought this character to life. Curtis would portray Monk in 1959 and Howard would create Ernest T in 1964.
There is another infamous actor who appears on Have Gun, in Strother Martin. Martin along with Denver Pyle started in John Wayne's The Horse Soldiers, but if you want to see Strother Martin blossom in the Cool Hand Luke "What we have here is a failure to communicate" and his genius in True Grit as Colonel Stonehouse bantering with Mattie, Martin becomes all he is, opposite Richard Boone in the episode of One Came Back. In that episode you see Martin in the genius of his acting in the high pitched, high strung, raspy voiced, argumentative, strutting legend, which Sam Peckinpah mastered in The Wild Bunch.
This series brought out the most from actors and created the most memorable characters and made careers. In One Came Back, you will witness James Coburn in why Hollywood noticed him.
Bruce Geller wrote this episode, and would write wonderful dramas from Mission Impossible to Mannix.
To make you children take notice, Star Trek began here as Gene Roddenberry based Star Trek on Gunsmoke.
Nuff Said
agtG
