10 Major Movie Stars Who Appeared On Gunsmoke

Premiering in 1955, "Gunsmoke" is one of the best Western TV shows of all time, running for 20 seasons. The show is set in Dodge City after the American Civil War, with U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon (James Arness) keeping the peace. Along with a growing number of allies in the community, Dillon takes on all sorts of outlaws and other threats to the frontier town. "Gunsmoke" became one of the longest-running shows on American TV and really defined the Western genre on television.

As such a staple on American television, the series featured plenty of memorable guest and recurring actors throughout its run. In some cases, it was actors at the starting of their careers before progressing to more prominent Hollywood projects on the big screen. In rarer cases, actors who already had storied cinematic careers took on a guest role, adding to the ongoing saga of Marshal Dillon and Dodge City. With that in mind, these are 10 major movie stars who appeared on "Gunsmoke" as part of their individually storied careers.

Big screen tough guy Charles Bronson worked prolifically in television before transitioning to star in film projects in the '60s, including a memorable appearance on the "The Twilight Zone." Before even that, Bronson guest-starred in the first season of "Gunsmoke" as murderous outlaw Crego in the episode "The Killer." Crego has a tendency of resorting to underhanded methods to kill his victims, even going as far as shooting a man in his sleep. Seeing through this, Dillon goads Crego in trying to attack him, prompting the marshal to shoot down the killer in self-defense.

In sharp contrast to his first role, Bronson returns to "Gunsmoke" in the Season 4 episode "The Lost Rifle." This time around, Bronson's character, Ben Tiple, is an old friend of Dillon's who is accused of murder. This leads to a thorough investigation to identify who is truly responsible before Tiple's enemies can use this as an excuse to take the law into their own hands. Bronson went on to star in Western movies like "The Magnificent Seven" and "Once Upon a Time in the West," but his appearances on "Gunsmoke" demonstrated his range even earlier.

Years before starring as Spock in "Star Trek," fan-favorite actor Leonard Nimoy appeared in four episodes of "Gunsmoke," each time as a different character. In his first appearance, in the Season 7 episode "A Man a Day," Nimoy plays violent outlaw Elia Grice. Nimoy returned in the episodes "The Search" and "I Call Him Wonder," but it was his fourth and final appearance that's a standout for good and bad reasons.

In the Season 11 episode "Treasure of John Walking Fox," Nimoy played the titular Native American character with an elaborate revenge scheme. After John Walking Fox's friend is murdered, he pretends to have gold treasure, prompting the killers to descend into bloody in-fighting to claim it all for themselves.

Leonard Nimoy's culturally insensitive role on "Gunsmoke" presaged his public debut as Spock five months later, propelling his career to new heights. This extended to Nimoy not only playing Spock in the subsequent "Star Trek" movies, but starring in other films like "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and "The Transformers: The Movie." Nimoy's final "Gunsmoke" appearance has aged poorly, to say the least, but it gives him the most prominent and nuanced character he played on the show.

"The Exorcist" star Ellen Burstyn appeared in "Gunsmoke" twice, not only playing two different characters but being credited under different names each time. In her first appearance, Burstyn was credited under her stage name Ellen McRae, guest-starring in the Season 7 episode "Wagon Girls" as a character named Polly Mims. Nearly a decade later, Burstyn returned to the series under her current credited name for the Season 17 episode "Waste." In this 1971 appearance, Burstyn plays a character named Amy Waters, involved in Dillon searching for a child's missing mother.

Burstyn's second and final appearance on "Gunsmoke" predates her memorable movie role in "The Last Picture Show" by a matter of weeks. Two years later, Burstyn starred in the seminal horror movie "The Exorcist" and the title role in "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" the following year. Burstyn's career thrived for decades after, including standout work in "Requiem for a Dream" and "Interstellar," collaborating with some of the biggest filmmakers in Hollywood today. 

To help him keep the peace, Dillon had a number of deputized sidekicks, initially with Dennis Weaver's Chester B. Goode before his exit as his primary deputy. As Weaver's tenure on the show nears its end, Dodge City gets a new blacksmith in Quint Asper, portrayed by Burt Reynolds. A mixed race character of Comanche descent, Asper gets help from Dillon to integrate into the local community. Asper pays this help forward by becoming a part-time deputy for Dillon and the two work together to keep Dodge City safe.

Reynolds wasn't a one-off guest star or even a recurring character, like other actors on this list, but a credited series regular. Reynolds' Asper debuted in the third episode of Season 8 and left after Episode 26 of Season 10, with no major discussion about his character's departure in the show. Behind-the-scenes, Reynolds left "Gunsmoke" to pursue a movie career, which began to take off by the late '60s. But for three seasons, from 1962 to 1965, Reynolds played Dodge City's fiery blacksmith and a loyal ally to Marshal Dillon.

Much of the show's lengthy run coincided with the burgeoning acting career of a young Kurt Russell, who guest-starred in two very different roles in "Gunsmoke." Russell's first appearance is in the Season 10 premiere episode "Blue Heaven," playing a precocious boy Packy Kerlin who falls in with an outlaw while searching for his mother. Nearly a full decade later, Russell returned to the show playing the new character Buck Henry Woolfe for the Season 19 episode "Trail of Bloodshed." Woolfe is the son of a murdered man searching for those responsible for the killing in a determined bid to avenge his father.

Kurt Russell has been turning in standout performances for years in television and film and he shows his range with his two appearances on "Gunsmoke." Whether playing a boy mixed up in questionable company or a vengeful young man, the early makings of Russell's acting strengths are visible. On the big screen, Russell starred in the vengeance-driven "Tombstone" as Wyatt Earp, playing a different Wild West figure with his own vendetta. And while Russell made numerous guest-starring appearances on television in the '60s and '70s, there is something special about his "Gunsmoke" roles.

By the time Bette Davis appeared on "Gunsmoke" in Season 12, she already experienced a long and celebrated movie career. With her withering gaze, Davis was a staple in noir films throughout the '30s and '40s, including "Dark Victory" and "Deception." After experiencing a career downturn in the '50s, Davis enjoyed a resurgence after starring in the 1961 thriller "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" opposite Joan Crawford. The duo's contentious dynamic was chronicled in "FEUD: Bette and Joan," with Susan Sarandon playing Davis to fantastically antisocial effect.

Appearing in the "Gunsmoke" episode "The Jailer," Davis plays a vengeful woman named Etta Stone with a grudge against Dillon. Blaming him for the death of her husband, Stone takes Dillon hostage with the intention to hang him as part of her revenge. True to "FEUD" form, Davis apparently thought her "Gunsmoke" role was beneath her but accepted the gig anyway. Coincidentally, "The Jailer" actually included another movie star in Bruce Dern though his acting career was just starting in comparison to Davis.

Leonard Nimoy isn't the only "Star Trek" actor to appear in "Gunsmoke," he isn't even the only "Star Trek" actor to do so in 1966. In the Season 12 episode "Quaker Girl," Shatner plays a notorious and cocky crook named Fred Bateman, a wanted man who has kidnapped Dillon's deputy Thad Greenwood (Roger Ewing). When Bateman encounters a local Quaker community, he poses as a lawman to avoid suspicion and why he has Greenwood in tow. However, Bateman's arrogant nature proves to be his undoing, eventually leading to his true identity being exposed, foiling his scheme.

Shatner is a star with more than one iconic TV show role, though "Gunsmoke" is a relative blip in his acting career. "Star Trek" premiered approximately three months before "Quaker Girl" aired, giving Shatner the character that ultimately defined his career, both in television and film. For his part, Shatner claimed he almost died while filming "Gunsmoke," alleging an unnamed actor got carried away during an action scene and overenthusiastically strangled him. 

With his gravelly voice and magnetic on-screen presence, Sam Elliott has embodied a paradigm for rugged Western figures for decades. Among his early television roles was a guest-starring appearance in the "Gunsmoke" Season 17 finale, an episode titled "The Wedding." Elliott plays Cory Soames, a young man trying to marry Donna Clayton (Melissa Newman) despite opposition from her father Walt (Morgan Woodward). To disrupt the planned nuptials, Walt levies false accusations at Cory, causing violence to break out and derail the proceedings.

Whether it's "Road House" or "The Big Lebowski," Elliott has entertained audiences playing a variety of rustic roles. Decades later and Elliott is still delivering stellar performances in shows like "Landman," bringing a degree of grizzled world-weariness to his character. With that in mind, it's fascinating to see him as a much younger man in "Gunsmoke," shaping the archetype he would lean into as his career developed. Elliott was still several years away from silver screen stardom, but his clear appeal is already evident here.

Harrison Ford is yet another movie star that appeared on "Gunsmoke" playing two different characters. The actor made two supporting appearances in Season 18 as gunslingers visiting Dodge City in varying capacities, threatening to disturb the peace. In the 1972 episode "The Sodbusters," Ford plays a hired gunfighter named Print who's embroiled in a land conflict before being taken out by Marshal Dillon himself. In the 1973 episode "Whelan's Men" towards the end of the season, Ford plays Hobey, an outlaw in a roving gang led by Dan Whelan (Robert Burr).

While not as substantial as Russell's roles on "Gunsmoke," Harrison Ford definitely makes the most of the screentime that he's given. "Whelan's Men" gives Ford a juicier part to play than "The Sodbusters," bringing an undeniable charisma to his character. Later in 1973, Ford had a memorable supporting role in the movie "American Graffiti as cocky drag racer Bob Falfa. This began his association with George Lucas and, after starring as Han Solo in "Star Wars," the rest is cinematic history.

Yes, Tron himself, Bruce Boxleitner, not only guest-starred in "Gunsmoke" but made his appearance in the series finale. Airing at the end of Season 20 in 1975, the episode "The Sharecroppers" features Boxleitner playing a character named Toby Hogue. Rather than providing a satisfying conclusion to the adventures of Matt Dillon and his friends, the finale is something of a lighthearted side story. Hogue is caught up in a misunderstanding involving a con artist and a mule as he prepares to get married.

Over a decade after its finale, "Gunsmoke" returned in the form of five television movies that continued Dillon's story until 1994. Ironically, Boxleitner also appeared in the last of these TV movies, "Gunsmoke: One Man's Justice," albeit playing a different character. In this role, Boxleitner portrays a more prominent part as Davis Healy, who helps Dillon take on an outlaw gang that raids his stagecoach. Bringing about the end of two eras of "Gunsmoke," Boxleitner has a semi-charmed legacy with the franchise.