Gunsmoke featured a ton of actors during its epic 20-year run. The TV series started out as a radio program before making the leap to television in the mid-1950s. From 1955 to 1975, the show kept the adventures of U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon (James Arness) alive and well, much to the delight of fans. As for his co-star Buck Taylor, his journey to the show meant other dreams couldn’t be realized
Although Taylor wasn’t one of the original cast members of Gunsmoke, he played a prominent role in the latter half of the show’s original run. In 1967, Taylor joined the show as Newly O’Brien. The character was among the characters to step in as acting deputies at various points. Burt Reynolds’ Quint Asper and Roger Ewing’s Thad Greenwood preceded Taylor in that regard.
As for Newly O’Brien, the character served as both a backup deputy and a doctor-in-training. Thanks to his uncle, he had some medical training. Taylor remained on the show from his introduction until the show finally came to a close in 1975. But before he became an actor, he was in pursuit of a very different passion: participating in the Olympic Games.
In an old interview, Taylor explained a bit about how he ended up getting the role on Gunsmoke. At the start of his career, he wasn’t yet an actor but a gymnast with ambitions of competing in the Olympics.
“I tried out for the Olympics, but I didn’t make the team. I think I worked out every day for about 12 years, very hard,” he explained in his interview with Bette Rogge for The University of Dayton. “Then when I started acting, I did a couple of saddle falls – stunt work – and I chipped my shoulder. So I had to give up the gymnastics.”
Thankfully, it all worked out in the end, as Taylor found great success in Hollywood. Gunsmoke was an integral part of what would become a very prolific career. Over the years, he particularly held great esteem in the Western genre on both television and in the movies.
Most recently, Taylor had a popular recurring role on the Paramount Network series Yellowstone. That show – which follows a family based out of the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch – stars Kevin Costner, Luke Grimes, and Kelly O’Reilly. Taylor played Emmett Walsh from 2018 to 2022, appearing in a total of eight episodes across the show’s first five seasons.
Yellowstone notably has helped reinvigorate the modern Western. The show has become such a runaway hit that it has expanded into a franchise for Paramount. With two spin-offs already behind it and another two on the way, Yellowstone is only the latest Western project to receive Taylor’s stamp of approval.
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