James Arness
Also Known As: James King Aurness, Джеймс Арнесс, جیمز آرنس
Biography: The star of one of the longest-running shows in U.S. television history, Gunsmoke (1955). Born of Norwegian heritage (the family name, Aurness (formerly had been Aursness) in Minneapolis, Minnesota to Rolf and Ruth Duesler Aurness. His father was a traveling salesman of medical supplies and his mother later became a newspaper columnist. James attended West High School in Minneapolis. Although he appeared in school plays, he had no interest in performing, and dreamed instead of going to sea. After high school, he attended one semester at Beloit College before receiving his draft notice in 1943. He entered the army and trained at Camp Wheeler, Georgia, before shipping out for North Africa. After landing at Casablanca, Arness joined the 3rd Infantry Division in time for the invasion of Anzio. Ten days after the invasion, Arness was severely wounded in the leg and foot by German machine-gun fire. His wounds, which plagued him the rest of his life, resulted in his medical discharge from the army. While recuperating in a Clinton, Iowa hospital, he was visited by his younger brother Peter (later to gain fame as actor Peter Graves), who suggested he take a radio course at the University of Minnesota. James did so, and a teacher recommended him for a job as an announcer at a Minneapolis radio station. Though seemingly headed for success in radio, he followed a boyhood friend's suggestion and went with the friend to Hollywood in hopes of getting work as film extras. He studied at the Bliss-Hayden Theatre School under actor Harry Hayden, and while appearing in a play there was spotted by agent Leon Lance. Lance got the actor a role as Loretta Young's brother in The Farmer's Daughter (1947). The director of that film, H.C. Potter, recommended that he drop the "u" from his last name and soon thereafter the actor was officially known as James Arness. Little work followed this break, He appeared in a production of "Candida", and married his leading lady, Virginia Chapman. He began to get small roles with frequency, often, due to his size, villainous characters. Most notable among these was that of the space alien in The Thing from Another World (1951). While playing a Greek warrior in a play, Arness was spotted by agent Charles K. Feldman, who represented John Wayne. Feldman introduced Arness to Wayne, who put the self-described 6' 6" actor under personal contract. Arness played several roles over the next few years for and with Wayne, whom he considered a mentor. In 1955, Wayne recommended Arness for the lead role of Matt Dillon in the TV series Gunsmoke (1955). (Contrary to urban legend, Wayne himself was never offered the role.) Arness at first declined, thinking a TV series could derail his growing film career, but Wayne argued for the show, and Arness accepted. After the cancellation of "Gunsmoke" in 1975, Arness took on another successful Western project, "How The West Was Won." A brief modern police drama, McClain's Law (1981), followed, and Arness played his mentor John Wayne's role in Red River (1988), a remake of the Wayne classic.
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Birthday: May 26, 1923
Deathday: June 03, 2011
Adult: No
Gender: Male
Popularity:
Known For:
The Thing from Another World
Overview: Scientists and US Air Force officials fend off a blood-thirsty alien organism while investigating at a remote arctic outpost.
Genres: Drama Horror Science Fiction
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1951-04-05
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Them!
Overview: As a result of nuclear testing, gigantic, ferocious mutant ants appear in the American desert southwest, and a father-daughter team of entomologists join forces with the state police officer who first discovers their existence, an FBI agent and, eventually, the US Army to eradicate the menace, before it spreads across the continent — and the world.
Genres: Science Fiction Horror
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1954-06-16
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Gunsmoke: To the Last Man
Overview: Retired marshal Matt Dillon tracks Arizona rustlers and lands in the middle of the 1880s Pleasant Valley War.
Genres: TV Movie Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1992-01-10
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Hondo
Overview: Army despatch rider Hondo Lane discovers a woman and her son living in the midst of warring Apaches, and he becomes their protector.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1953-11-26
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Stars in My Crown
Overview: Civil War veteran Josiah Grey comes to a small town to be a gospel minister. In time, he has a family and many friends but also finds friction with a few of his parishioners.
Genres: Drama Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1950-05-11
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Battleground
Overview: Members of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division are fighting for their country amidst the rugged terrain of Bastogne, Belgium, in December 1944. Holley and his American compatriots have already seen one of their own, Roderigues, perish under enemy fire. The men try to rebuff another series of Nazi attacks, but what they really need is a change in the weather. Without clear skies, they'll never get the air support they need.
Genres: Action Adventure Drama War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1949-11-09
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The Horror Show
Overview: A history of horror movies.
Genres: Horror Documentary TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1979-02-06
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Island in the Sky
Overview: A C-47 transport plane, named the Corsair, makes a forced landing in the frozen wastelands of Labrador, and the plane's pilot, Captain Dooley, must keep his men alive in deadly conditions while awaiting rescue.
Genres: Adventure Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1953-09-05
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The Sea Chase
Overview: As the Second World War breaks out, German freighter captain Karl Ehrlich is about to leave Sydney, Australia with his vessel, the Ergenstrasse. Ehrlich, an anti-Nazi but proud German, hopes to outrun or out-maneuver the British warship pursuing him. Aboard his vessel is Elsa Keller, a woman Ehrlich has been ordered to return to Germany safely along with whatever secrets she carries. When Ehrlich's fiercely Nazi chief officer Kirchner commits an atrocity, the British pursuit becomes deadly.
Genres: War Action Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1955-06-04
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Big Jim McLain
Overview: House Un-American Activities Committee investigators Jim McLain and Mal Baxter come to post war Hawaii to track Communist Party activities even though belonging to the party was legal at the time. They are interested in everything from insurance fraud to the sabotage of a U.S. naval vessel.
Genres: Action Adventure Drama Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1952-08-30
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The People Against O'Hara
Overview: A defense attorney jeopardizes his career to save his client.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1951-09-01
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Horizons West
Overview: Brothers Dan and Neil Hammond return to Texas after the Civil War. Ambitious Dan turns to rustling and then shady land deals to build an empire. Being held for a murder, he is rescued from a lynch mob by Neil, who is now the Marshal, but there is eventually a falling out between the brothers, good triumphing over evil.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1952-10-11
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Wagon Master
Overview: Two young horse traders guide a Mormon wagon train to the San Juan Valley and encounter rugged terrain, the cutthroat Clegg gang, hospitable Navajo, and moral challenges on the journey.
Genres: Adventure Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1950-04-22
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Carbine Williams
Overview: David Marshall Williams is sent to a prison farm where he works in the tool shop and eventually develops the precursor of the famous M-1 Carbine automatic rifle used in World War II.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1952-05-01
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Alias Jesse James
Overview: Insurance salesman Milford Farnsworth sells a man a life policy only to discover that the man in question is the outlaw Jesse James. Milford is sent to buy back the policy, but is robbed by Jesse. And when Jesse learns that Milford's boss is on the way out with more cash, he plans to rob him too and have Milford get killed in the robbery while dressed as Jesse, and collect on the policy.
Genres: Comedy Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1959-03-20
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Iron Man
Overview: In Coaltown, Pennsylvania, miner Coke Mason hopes to better himself, buy a radio store, and marry Rose Warren. His gambler brother George thinks Coke can be more successful as a boxer, knowing that when he fights he's consumed with a murderous rage that makes him an "iron man." Seeing dollar signs in Rose's eyes, Coke reluctantly agrees, though he's fearful of the "killer instinct" that makes him a knockout success in the ring...and brings him the booing hatred of the fans. Will Coke throw off his personal demon before he kills someone?
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1951-09-20
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Many Rivers to Cross
Overview: Robert Taylor and Eleanor Parker star as a Kentucky backwoodsman and the woman who will NOT let anything interfere with her plans to marry him in this humorous romantic adventure through the American Frontier of 1798.
Genres: Western Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1955-02-04
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John Wayne Standing Tall
Overview: Profile of one of the world's most popular motion picture stars, told through interviews with some of the artists who worked with him, family, friends, and excerpts from many of his films and television appearances.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1989-03-01
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Gunsmoke: Return to Dodge
Overview: Will Mannon, "product of the Devil's loins," is released from a frontier prison and promptly goes in search of the people who put him there some 12 years ago -- Matt Dillon and Kitty Russell.
Genres: TV Movie Action Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1987-09-27
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Gun the Man Down
Overview: An outlaw is left for dead by his gang after being shot. A year later, he is released from jail with one thing on his mind: Revenge.
Genres: Western Action Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1956-11-15
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Wyoming Mail
Overview: In 1869, the United States begins a railroad mail service to the West Coast which proves highly tempting to train robbers, in particular an organized gang with one of the mail's supposed guardians in their pay. Prizefighter Steve Davis, a former army intelligence man, is hired to track down the gang and save the Territorial Mail Service. Steve goes undercover in territorial prison, leans Morse Code from a fellow prisoner, breaks jail, infiltrates the gang...and finds time to romance dance-hall singer Mary, who proves to have hidden depths...
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1950-10-18
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Sierra
Overview: Ring Hassard and his father Jeff, wild horse breakers, live in a hidden mountain eyrie as Jeff is wanted for a murder he didn't commit. Things change when they take in a lost young lady, Riley Martin, who finds that Ring has "never seen a woman close up." Jeff is injured, Ring runs afoul of horse thieves and the law, and Riley (who is a lawyer) labors to clear the Hassards (who others would prefer dead).
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1950-05-26
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For the Love of Spock
Overview: The life of Star Trek's Mr. Spock — as well as that of Leonard Nimoy, the actor who played Mr. Spock for almost fifty years —written and directed by his son, Adam.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2016-09-09
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Two Lost Worlds
Overview: Shipwreck survivors land on an uncharted island inhabited by prehistoric beasts.
Genres: Adventure Action Science Fiction Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1951-01-05
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The Man from Texas
Overview: James Craig is torn between his criminal career as the masked bandit named the "El Paso Kid," and the life of a law-abiding citizen with his long-suffering wife Zoe. He repeatedly tells Zoe, "just one more time," but he is unable to stop which angers her greatly. However, he does have brief moments of heroics such as when he helps the Widow Weeks save her farm.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1948-03-06
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Roses Are Red
Overview: A crooked crime boss tries to put a crony into office.
Genres: Drama Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1947-11-10
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Gunsmoke: The Last Apache
Overview: James Arness rides again as Matt Dillon, the US Marshal he made popular in the 1955-75 TV series. In this movie he goes after a renegade Apache named Wolf (Joe Lara) who has taken his daughter captive. As a bargaining chip, Dillon helps two sons of Apache chief Geronimo out of the fort stockade and offers them in trade. Dillon is aided by an Army scout, Chalk Brighton (Kiley). Written by John Sacksteder
Genres: TV Movie Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1990-03-17
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Flame of the Islands
Overview: A café singer buys a gambling casino and several men fall in love with her.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1955-12-04
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The Girl in White
Overview: The first female doctor in New York City comes up against prejudice from male counterparts who feel threatened by her skills. Eventually, though, they come to respect her and romance blossoms between her and the head doctor.
Genres: Drama History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1952-05-23
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Hellgate
Overview: A man is framed and sent to the toughest prison in the territory.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1952-09-04
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Her Twelve Men
Overview: An inexperienced female teacher is hired at a private elite school for boys where she raises a few eyebrows among the all-male faculty.
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1954-08-11
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The Alamo: Thirteen Days to Glory
Overview: Against orders and with no help of relief Texas patriots led by William Travis, Jim Bowie, and Davy Crockett defend the Alamo against overwhelming Mexican forces.
Genres: TV Movie Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1987-11-11
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The Lone Hand
Overview: Zachary Hallock and his son Joshua are farmers who live in a frontier town that suffers the assaults of a band of outlaws. After the murder of a Pinkerton's detective, the farmers decide to unite against the bandits, but Hallock rejects the proposal. To the astonishment of his son and his fiancée, Hallock decides to join the outlaws.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1953-05-20
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Cavalry Scout
Overview: Kirby Frye, a former Confederate officer but now a Union Cavalry scout, is sent into Montana territory to locate and retrieve three Gatling Guns stolen from the U.S. Arsenal by outlaws believed to have taken them west to sell to the Soiux and Cheyenne. The trail leads him to Red Bluff where, aided by Claire Corville, he and the audience discover together and real quick like that Martin Gavin, a supposedly-honest operator of a freight line, has the guns and intends to exchange them to the Indians for furs.
Genres: Romance Action Adventure Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1951-05-13
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The First Traveling Saleslady
Overview: At the turn of the century Rose and ex-showbiz friend Molly get involved in selling steel. When they come unstuck with corsets they embark on the even more hazardous project of selling barbed wire to highly suspicious Texas cowboys.
Genres: Comedy Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1956-08-01
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The Veils of Bagdad
Overview: Antar is sent by Suleiman, head of the Ottoman Empire, to Bagdad to prevent Hammam, Pasha of Bagdad, from purchasing the services of local leader Mustapha to unite the hill tribes and overthrow the emperor. The intrigue mounts as Antar falls in love with dancer Selima, who tries to avenge her father's death against Hammam's right-hand-man Kasseim, whose wife Rosanna has fallen in love with Antar!
Genres: Drama Action Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1953-10-06
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Gunsmoke: One Man's Justice
Overview: Retired marshal Dillon goes after a 15 year old boy who is determined to kill the men responsible for the murder of his mother during a stagecoach robbery
Genres: TV Movie Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1994-02-10
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The Farmer's Daughter
Overview: After leaving her family's farm to study nursing in the city, a young woman finds herself on an unexpected path towards politics.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1947-03-26
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Red River
Overview: Remake of the 1948 John Wayne feature about a man who rebels against his tyrannical guardian during a crucial cattle drive.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1988-04-10
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Gunsmoke: The Long Ride
Overview: For thirty years, Marshall Matt Dillon fought to preserve the law in Dodge City… now, he's wanted for murder and fighting to clear his name. Three deputies ride up with a warrant for Dillon's arrest, a wealthy mine operator has been gunned down in cold blood and an eyewitness says Dillon was the murderer.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1993-05-08
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The Macahans
Overview: Zeb Macahan, a pioneering westerner, helps move his brother's family to the wild west. They run into several obstacles including the breakout of the Civil War. This sends the father back to fight in the war and leaves the family to move on ahead.
Genres: Western TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1976-01-19
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In a Lonely Place
Overview: A screenwriter with a violent temper is a murder suspect until his lovely neighbor clears him. However, she soon starts to have her doubts.
Genres: Drama Romance Mystery Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1950-05-17
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