"Gunsmoke"
star James Arness is hitting the trail again -- only this time it's to a bookstore
near you. For the past 18 months, Arness (who, as the CBS western's Marshal Matt
Dillon from 1955-75, still holds the record for starring on the longest-running
prime-time series in TV history), has been working on "James Arness: An Autobiography,"
to be published this fall by McFarland Books. The book, Arness tells PEOPLE.com,
covers his childhood, his WWII experiences (Arness received the Purple Heart),
his family (he and wife Janet have been married 22 years) and his career, which
besides "Gunsmoke," included his being under contract to John Wayne's production
company for three years. (Ironically, it was Wayne who was first offered the role
of Dillon when the radio series was about to hit TV.) "Working with John Wayne,
you became a part of his family," Arness, now 77, recalls. "It was like being
with Robin Hood and his Merry Men." Since his last outing in Dillon's boots (1994's
"Gunsmoke: One Man's Justice"), Arness, who owned two private planes, was very
much into flying, but had to give it up in 1999 when he found himself not spending
enough practice time in the air. Those hours, he says, are now devoted to, among
other things, his work with United Cerebral Palsy and seeing his younger (by two
years) brother, A&E "Biography" host Peter Graves. |
