Beloved ‘Gunsmoke’ Star Dead at 83

Roger Ewing, the tall, quietly charming actor who stepped into TV history as deputy marshal Thad Greenwood on Gunsmoke, has died at 83.

The longtime Morro Bay, California resident passed away on December 18, his family confirmed.

Standing 6-foot-4 with a lanky, all-American look, Ewing was just 23 when he first turned up on CBS’ legendary western in February 1965, playing a character named Ben Lukens. Viewers didn’t have to wait long to see more of him: that fall, he returned in a much bigger way as Clayton Thaddeus “Thad” Greenwood in season 11.

Thad rode into Dodge City as the son of an aging Oklahoma sheriff, chasing four vandals who triggered his father’s fatal heart attack. When he found out his warrant didn’t hold in Dodge, he stuck around anyway — and after the bad guys were rounded up for cattle rustling, Marshal Matt Dillon (James Arness) invited him to stay on as a deputy.

“With Thad’s family gone, Matt, Kitty, Doc and Festus sort of adopted him,” Ewing once explained. “Anything that needed to be done, you know, an extra hand here, an extra hand there, Thad was always around. He fit in whenever necessary.”

Ewing ultimately appeared in 50 episodes between 1965 and 1967, becoming a familiar face during a rare rough patch in Gunsmoke’s ratings. Behind the scenes, he also found himself in the middle of big network drama. After Burt Reynolds (who played blacksmith Quint Asper) exited the series, producers brought Ewing in to fill the “younger star” slot — and even quietly considered him as a possible replacement for Arness when the lead actor and CBS were locked in a tense standoff over money and ownership.

Once that dispute was resolved and Gunsmoke was saved from cancellation, Thad was gradually written out, with Buck Taylor’s character Newly O’Brien taking over the young-gun space and staying on the show until its 1975 finale.

Roger Lawrence Ewing was born in Los Angeles on January 12, 1942. As a high school senior, he spoofed Gunsmoke onstage, playing Chester (Dennis Weaver’s beloved character) in a variety-show satire and watching the real show every Saturday night.

After a year of college and a stint as a lifeguard, he tried his luck in Hollywood. His first onscreen role came in the 1964 film Ensign Pulver, where his character famously stuck a beer bottle into a duck’s mouth. That led to guest spots on series like Bewitched, The Baileys of Balboa, The Bing Crosby Show and Rawhide, plus a role in the Frank Sinatra war movie None But the Brave.

He later joked that he was “always being cast as a gangling misfit who looked tall and dumb,” but that gawky charm helped make him memorable on one of TV’s biggest westerns.

At one point, acclaimed director John Schlesinger reportedly considered Ewing for the lead role of Joe Buck in Midnight Cowboy, but the part ultimately went to Jon Voight. Fans also might spot him in a 1968 episode of The Dating Game, where future Bionic Woman star Lindsay Wagner chose a different bachelor.

After leaving Gunsmoke, Ewing appeared on The Mothers-in-Law and Death Valley Days and in the features Smith! (1969) with Glenn Ford and Play It as It Lays (1972) with Tuesday Weld and Anthony Perkins.

Then, at a point when many actors would double down on chasing roles, Ewing walked away. He quit acting, picked up a camera, and devoted himself to photography, traveling through Europe, Russia, Mexico and the South Pacific. He later became active in local politics in Morro Bay and even ran for a city council seat in 2003.

For Gunsmoke fans, he’ll always be Thad: the tall, earnest deputy who felt like part of the family in Dodge City — and in living rooms across America.