Dennis Weaver

  • To within three inches, how tall is Dennis Weaver

Answer: 6' 2 1/2"

Dennis Weaver with Jimmy Cagney in "The Gallant Hours".

    • (T/F) Weaver is a vegetarian.

      True

      Dennis Weaver built a house out of 3000 old tires and 200,000 aluminum cans filled with dirt.

        True. Click HERE for details

    • Dennis Weaver played the title role in King Lear.

        True. He is quoted in 1963 in TV Guide as saying ``I don't think any less about Chester than I did about King Lear in college.

    • Like Ronald Reagan, Dennis Weaver is a past President of the Screen Actor's Guild.

        True

    • To within three, what year was Dennis Weaver born?

        • Answer: 1924

    • The first three letters of the name of the state where Dennis Weaver was born are Miss. In what state was he born?

        • Joplin, Missouri

    • Dennis Weaver starred in what famous director's first television film?

        • Steven Spielberg

    • The name of this thriller about a man being pursued by a rusted psychotic eighteen wheeler was titled

          • Duel.
          • If.
          • Showdown.
          • Convoy Blues.
          • A Can of Worms.

          Answer: ... Duel

    • Dennis Weaver appeared in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

        • False ... but he did host a television episode of Great Adventures in 1989 that saluted the Indiana Jones Trilogy.

    • Weaver played what type of drug addict in a 1983 made-for-TV movie.

        • Cocaine: One Man's Seduction was the title.

    • Weaver played the title role in the 1980 movie The Ordeal of Doctor Mudd. The movie concerned one of the ancestor of CBS television newsman and commentator, Roger Mudd.

        • True ... the Dr. Mudd that assisted John Wilkes Booth after Booth shot Lincoln. Roger Mudd spent much time in clearing his ancestor's name nearly one hundred years after the assassination. TV Guide rates the movie with two stars

      • To accept the role of Chester in Gunsmoke, Dennis Weaver dropped a lucritive contract with MGM.

        False. Prior to Gunsmoke, Weaver held a number of odd jobs, including a janitor and a door-to-door salesman for items such as vacuum cleaners, ladies' hosiery and tricycles. When he was called to be told he had won the part of Chester, he was out delivering flowers.

    • Did Dennis Weaver ever direct an episode of Gunsmoke?

        • Yes

    • Did Dennis Weaver ever star in an episode of the Twilight Zone?

        • Yes

    • Dennis Weaver appeared in the first Godzilla movie.

        False

    • Dennis Weaver played guitar and sang he wrote on Magnum PI.

        • True

    • Dennis Weaver appeared prior to Gunsmoke in a color Dragnet movie.

        • True

    • Name two of the four television series in which Dennis Weaver played the title role.

        • McCloud, Stone,Kentucky Jones and Buck James.

        Weaver as Buck James

    • Dennis Weaver's wife is his manager.

        • False

    • Mrs. Dennis Weaver met Linda Gray, later lead in Dallas, at a health food store. Mrs. Weaver got Linda Gray a rold on Weaver's McCloud. It was Gray's first break.

        • True

    • Many early television series have been revisited as television movies, including The Andy Griffin Show, Perry Mason, Gilligin's Island, The Brady Bunch and Leave It to Beaver. Dennis Weaver starred in what similar made-for-television movie that first aired in 1989?

        • The Return of Sam McCloud. McCloud was now a United States Senator solving a muder case in London. TV Guide rated the movie with two stars.

    • Name one of the four television series in which Dennis Weaver starred which were not named after the character he played.

        • Gentle Ben, Emerald Point NAS, the mini series Centennial and, of course, Gunsmoke.

    • Dennis Weaver's series Gentle Ben, which ran for two years, premiered 12 years to the day from Gunsmoke's premier.

        • True.

    Dennis Weaver in Gentle Ben and (below) McCloud

      • Weaver has compared himself to a bag of doughnuts.

        True. Of the bear lead in Gentle Ben, Weaver is quoted in Guide as saying ``I liked him, but it was a cold relationship. Bears aren't like dogs and horses. Ben didn't know me from a bag of doughnuts".

    • On Gentle Ben, Weaver played a character similar to that he played on Gunsmoke: the assistant of a game warden in the everglades.

        • False ... Weaver was the game warden.

    • Gentle Ben was (a) a game warden. (b) a lovable old man. (c) a gorilla. (d) a bear. (e) an animal trainer. (f) a humane private investigator.

        • Answer: ... a bear played in the series by Bruno the Bear.

    • In order to capitalize on the popularity of Gunsmoke, the character Dennis Weaver played on Gentle Ben also had the first name of Chester.

        • False ... his character's name was Mark Wedloe.

    • Dennis Weaver left Gunsmoke to play a veterinarian in what television series?

        • Kentucky Jones ... it ran for one season. The series was originally titled Kentucky's Kid and was designed to star Jack Carson.

    • When Weaver left Gunsmoke, his character was never mentioned again.

        • False

    • In the series for which he left Gunsmoke, Dennis Weaver played a widower with a son named Dwight Eisenhower.

        • True ... his Chinese adopted son's full name was Dwight Eisenhower (Ike) Wong.

    • In order to woe Gunsmoke fans, this series ran opposite of Gunsmoke on Saturday nights.

        • False... both ran on Saturday nights. Jones, however, began at 8:30 and Gunsmoke at 10:00.

    • After he left Gunsmoke, Weaver's agent contacted the series and asked if he could come back as a guest star.

        • According to Gunsmoke producer John Mantley...True. Weaver's spokesman declined to comment.

    • In what series did Dennis Weaver star as a detective with his real life son, Bobby?

        • Stone

    • On what short lived prime time soap did Dennis Weaver play a Rear Admiral named Thomas Mallery?

        • Emerald Point NAS which ran for five and one half months.

    • Dennis Weaver has played the guitar and sang on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

      True ... in the fall of 1987.

    • For what product did Dennis Weaver host an infomercial in the early 1990's?

        • Autofom, a car wax-type product.

    • Thirty one years from the premier of Gunsmoke, to the day, Dennis Weaver was awarded a star on Hollywood's walk of fame.

        • True

      • Dennis Weaver shunned his Chester character. Indeed, since he has left the series, Weaver has refused to recreate the character in public.

        False ... During the ceremony for his star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, for example, after a prolonged kiss from Amanda Blake, Weaver broke into his Chester character and blurted ``Now I know what you mean Mr. Dillon!".

    • In the movie The Great Man's Whiskers, Weaver played what famous nineteenth century American politician.

        • Abraham Lincoln

    • Weaver played the lead in the television seris McCloud. What was McCloud's first mane?

        • Sam

    • Dennis Weaver's character in Buck James was modeled after the real life Texas surgeon

        • Archie ``Doc" LaPudd.
        • James ``Red" Duke.
        • Bert ``the Burp" Lumberger.
        • John ``Flusher" Bottoms.
        • Hector ``Gulp" Gleason.

        Answer: ... Duke. They are said to have a striking resemblance.

        Weaver as McCloud

    • Since Weaver chose to leave Gunsmoke, he not exchanged a single word with James Arness.

        • False ... Weaver considers Arness as his buddy. Arness says that Weaver's ``complex, multifaceted personality" makes him a versitile actor.

    • Mike Farrell, who played B.J. Honeycutt in M*A*S*H, has had a feud with Weaver since they worked on the 1986 made-for-TV movie Pearls Before Swine.

        • False ... Farrell says in TV Guide that ``(Weaver's) so easy to work with ... For some reason, whenever you are with him you are always laughing". Pearls Before Swine is not a movie.

    • With Rhoda's Valarie Harper, Dennis Weaver founded the charitable organization Love is Feeding Everyone (LIFE).

        • True ... Harper claims he has stood in the rain throwing sacks of potatoes into the cars of poor people.

    • Dennis Weaver was one of the hosts at a Willie Nelson organized event to aid farmers. What was that event?

        • Farm Aid IV

    • What did Dennis Weaver build out of 3500 tires and 40,000 aluminun cans?

        • His ecologically inspired home in Ridgeway, Colorado.

    • In 1987, Weaver made a television film Bluffing It where he played a factory foreman. In the role, what was Weaver bluffing ?

        • Reading and writing. He played a functional illiterate.

    • What role did Dennis Weaver take upon the death of John Wayne?

        • Rooster Cogburn.
        • Big Jim McClain
        • the spokesman for the Great Western Bank.

        Answer: the spokesman for the Great Western Bank.... The bank found that Weaver was ranked more believable by Americans than was Dinah Shore or Betty White who were both making commercials for the competition.

    • To within 5 years, how old was Weaver when he claims he first wanted to be an actor?

        • Answer: 3 ... at a church Christmas show in Missouri. He recited ``Little Jack Horner", blew his lines but enjoyed the resulting applause.

    • Weaver was sickly when he was a young man.

        • False ... he was runner-up for the 1948 Olympic track team.

    • Weaver was poor as a boy.

        • True ... his childhood was during the depression. His family even resorted to migrant fruit-pickers.

    • Match the following name to their relationship to Dennis Weaver:

      • 1. Rusty (a) mother
      2. Gerry (b) wife
      3. Lenna (c) son

        Answers: 1c, 2b, 3a

    • Weaver was a jitterbug champion in junior college.

        • True ... with his wife Gerry.

    • (T/F) Dennis Weaver owns The Big Barn Eating & Entertainment Emporium.

        • True. Click on image for the web page.

      • Dennis Weaver's favorite food is shrimp pizza.

        False

    • Weaver said ``Television game shows are mind candy. Not only do I refuse to appear on them, I refuse to watch them".

        • False ... Weaver has appeared on game shows including Peter Marshall's Blitz.

    • Dennis Weaver is a member of what church?

        • Southern Baptist.
        • Methodist.
        • Assembly of God.
        • The Self-Realization Fellowship.
        • Unitarian
        • Hindu

        Answer: the Self Realization Fellowship; who claim to take their teachings from Krishna, Christ, Abraham, Mohammed and Zoroaster. (Click HERE for an e-mail message from a member.)

    • After his premier on Gunsmoke in 1955, Weaver never again worked on radio.

        • False ... He, for example, did a radio spot for a financial institution named Great Western. No relation to Gunsmoke as a great western was made

Link to Dennis Weaver's Biography