Feb

28

Dennis Weaver dies at age 81

February 28, 2006 |

He played on two very notable shows: Gunsmoke and McCloud. He, like many actors had other smaller parts which were short lived.

In the 1950s, Weaver also toured in a singing trio with the series’ Miss Kitty (Amanda Blake) and Doc (Milburn Stone).

Weaver had other series over the years, most of them short-lived. In addition to “Gentle Ben,” which lasted two seasons in the mid-1960s, he starred in “Kentucky Jones,” “Emerald Point N.A.S.,” “Stone” and “Buck James.”

But it was Sam McCloud that Weaver called “the most satisfying role of my career.” The show, which ran from 1970 to 1977, featured him as a New Mexico lawman cast on the streets of New York City with a horse, a sheepskin coat and a folksy manner that belied his shrewd crime-solving talent.

Certainly on-screen he represented conservative law and order. His role as a western cowboy type in McCloud brought ‘common sense’ to the big city.

Off screen he was more of an environmentalist. Some might have called him green. Especially looking at his 10,000 sq. ft. house that only needed $50 a month electricity. Weaver also was big on recycling. To be blunt honest in light of today’s culture, it appears that he was more New Englandish than “Green Peace”. Not knowing much about this side of him… what I did find only spurred the resourcefulness and the ‘use whatever you can’ attitude of the old New England culture. Resourcefulness isn’t liberal but a trait of good old American conservatives.

That being said. Don’t ruin it for me to tell me how politically liberal he might have been. Well, I like the truth. So if you know. Let it come. Meanwhile, here is too good childhood memories watching his shows.

A nice tribute at Outside the beltway.

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