In 1948 he married Virginia Chapman and adopted her son by a previous marriage, Craig. Arness met future wife Virginia Chapman while both were studying at Southern California's Pasadena Playhouse. Arness was married to Virginia Chapman from 1948 to 1963 and married Janet Surtees in 1978. And although Learned faded from the scene, it wasnt the last we saw of the father-daughter duo. Marshal Dillon in the 1955-75 CBS Western series, Arness created an indelible portrait of a quiet, heroic man with an unbending dedication to justice and the town he protected. And his mother's name is Ruth Duesler who was from Germany and was a journalist by the profession. She is among the nine children of Rachel and Sean Duffy. Peter, who changed his last name to Graves, went on to star in the TV series "Mission Impossible. James Arness is shown in character for the title role in "McClains Law" in 1981. Arness official website posted a letter from Arness on Friday that he wrote with the intention that it be posted posthumously: I had a wonderful life and was blessed with some many loving people and great friends, he said. He served in the Battle of Anzio during World War II. As the plot thickens, Matt has another problem besides his physical wounds he cant remember his past. Arness' official website posted a letter from Arness on Friday that he wrote with the intention that it be posted posthumously: "I had a wonderful life and was blessed with some many loving people and great friends," he said. Read More Mia Randall Mahomes Bio, Age, Parents, Father, Brother, Patrick, MotherContinue, Who are Tiger Woods Children? He had been reared in a family of Norwegian descent in Minnesota and became an . He and his girlfriend then rushed to the residence on Moselle Road. To a generation of television viewers, Mr. Arness and Gunsmoke embodied a new, more adult vision of the mythic Old West: a quiet, vulnerable lawman facing not stereotyped villains and clichd situations but a chaotic frontier freighted with moral judgments and occasional failure. He got his acting start with RKO Pictures, and his first film role was in 1947's The Farmer's Daughter, in which he played the brother of Loretta Young's character. He believed the family seen on Gunsmoke was why people kept going back to it for two decades. Chapman's son from her first marriage, Craig, was adopted by Arness. Brother of Craig Aurness and Jenny Lee Arness. Actor Dennis Weaver Dead At 81 - CBS News But from 1957 to 1961, when it became a one-hour series, it was the top-rated show on television, seen every week by 40 million Americans and millions more in Britain, where it was called Gun Law. It bred dozens of copycats, including Have Gun, Will Travel, Wagon Train, Rawhide, The Rifleman and Bonanza.. He had a son, Rolf, and daughter, Jenny, with Chapman. The goofy-foot's son, Rolf, won the 1970 World Surfing Championships. He worked menial jobs, tried radio and was collecting veterans benefits when he drifted to Hollywood. Two years later, an overdose that police deemed accidental killed her mother. James Arness, the 6-foot-6 actor who towered over the television landscape for two decades as righteous Dodge City lawman Matt Dillon in Gunsmoke, died Friday. In January 1978, a nearly 400-page "epic length" paperback novelization of a number of early episodes, written by Lou Cameron, was published by Ballantine Books. Despite his desire for privacy, a rocky domestic life landed him in the news more than once. The effects were longterm and had drastic ramifications on his walking. Why did Pale Rider take Clint Eastwood to the next level the archetypal mysterious stranger? She pushed with Canadas adoption regulations to learn who her biological parents were, only to be shocked when she did.