Did the cast of Gunsmoke get along in real life?

Key Takeaways

• There was never any real angst among the staff
• That didn’t mean they didn’t pull pranks and have some fun
• Arness even had something he liked to do to scare guests

For a series that ran 20 years (1955-1975), there was never any real angst among the staff over the years. If there was, it was never reported. But in most accounts, the core cast of Gunsmoke got along very well and even stayed friends well after the series ended.

James Arness, who played the legendary Matt Dillon, was always known to be quiet, modest and easy to work with. He formed especially close relationships with Amanda Blake (Miss Kitty), Dennis Weaver (Chester Goode) and Milburn Stone (Doc Adams). Blake called Arness a “true gentleman,” Weaver credited Arness with supporting him early and Arness later said that Stone was like a brother to him, although they got off to a difficult beginning.

“I spent the first two years on Gunsmoke despising Jim’s lack of professionalism. Now I say his acting has reached classical proportions,” Stone once said of Arness. “Jim is the star on and off the set and we never had a serious quarrel or impasse.”

Blake and Arness were always very close, just as she was with Stone and Ken Curtis (Festus Haggen). But Blake was strong-willed, which occasionally saw her and Stone clash in the early years. But they went on to become great friends.

Stone had a dry sense of humor but was known for being extremely reliable on set. He and Curtis were the jokesters between sets. Even when Weaver left the show after nine seasons, there was no conflict. He simply wanted new challenges as a leading man and did not want to get typecast. The rest of the cast at the time widely supported his decision.

Just because they were friendly doesn’t mean that there weren’t fun or shenanigans on set. Arness had a wicked sense of humor. He loved to hide behind doorways and jump out and scare guest actors, which was easy to do because of his 6-foot-7 frame.

Blake was a passionate animal welfare advocate and often brought her pet lion, Kemo, onto the set. She’d also occasionally bring parrots and other rescue animals, leading Arness to once joke, “One of these days Kitty’s going to walk in with a buffalo.”