James Arness

Acting

James Arness

Born — Died

1923-05-26 — 2011-06-03

Place of birth

Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

Known for

Acting

Credits

51 titles

The star of one of the longest-running shows in U.S. television history, Gunsmoke (1955). Born of Norwegian heritage (the family name, Aurness (formerly had been Aursness) in Minneapolis, Minnesota to Rolf and Ruth Duesler Aurness. His father was a traveling salesman of medical supplies and his mother later became a newspaper columnist. James attended West High School in Minneapolis. Although he appeared in school plays, he had no interest in performing, and dreamed instead of going to sea. After high school, he attended one semester at Beloit College before receiving his draft notice in 1943. He entered the army and trained at Camp Wheeler, Georgia, before shipping out for North Af…

Known for

The Red Skelton Show poster
7.4

The Red Skelton Show is an American variety show that was a television staple for two decades, from 1951 to 1971. It was second to Gunsmoke and third to The Ed Sullivan Show in the ratings during that time. Skelton, who had previously been a radio star, had appeared in several motion pictures as well. Although his television series is largely associated with CBS, where it appeared for more than fifteen years, it actually began and ended on NBC. During its run, the program received three Emmy Awards, for Skelton as best comedian and the program as best comedy show during its initial season, and an award for comedy writing in 1961.

The Red Skelton Show

1951

The Ed Sullivan Show poster
6.8

The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June 20, 1948 to Sunday June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in September 1971 by the CBS Sunday Night Movie, which ran only one season and was eventually replaced by other shows. In 2002, The Ed Sullivan Show was ranked #15 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.

The Ed Sullivan Show

1948

Gunsmoke poster
6.7

Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West. The central character is lawman Marshal Matt Dillon, played by William Conrad on radio and James Arness on television.

Gunsmoke

1955

Lux Video Theatre poster
6.7

Lux Video Theatre is an American anthology series that was produced from 1950 until 1959. The series presented both comedy and drama in original teleplays, as well as abridged adaptations of films and plays.

Lux Video Theatre

1950

How the West Was Won poster
7.0

The Macahans, a family from Virginia headed by Zeb Macahan, travel across the country to pioneer a new land and a new home in the American West.

How the West Was Won

1977

Battleground poster
6.7

Members of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division are fighting for their country amidst the rugged terrain of Bastogne, Belgium, in December 1944. Holley and his American compatriots have already seen one of their own, Roderigues, perish under enemy fire. The men try to rebuff another series of Nazi attacks, but what they really need is a change in the weather. Without clear skies, they'll never get the air support they need.

Battleground

1949

Film credits

1990s · 4 titles

1980s · 4 titles

1950s · 28 titles

Hondo poster
6.5

Army despatch rider Hondo Lane discovers a woman and her son living in the midst of warring Apaches, and he becomes their protector.

Hondo

1953

In a Lonely Place poster
7.6

A violent screenwriter and a female neighbor fall in love after she clears him of murder, but she begins to have second thoughts.

In a Lonely Place

1950

The Thing from Another World poster
6.7

Scientists and US Air Force officials fend off a blood-thirsty alien organism while investigating at a remote arctic outpost.

The Thing from Another World

1951

Them! poster
6.8

As a result of nuclear testing, gigantic, ferocious mutant ants appear in the American desert southwest, and a father-daughter team of entomologists join forces with the state police officer who first discovers their existence, an FBI agent and, eventually, the US Army to eradicate the menace, before it spreads across the continent — and the world.

Them!

1954

The Sea Chase poster
6.3

As the Second World War breaks out, German freighter captain Karl Ehrlich is about to leave Sydney, Australia with his vessel, the Ergenstrasse. Ehrlich, an anti-Nazi but proud German, hopes to outrun or out-maneuver the British warship pursuing him. Aboard his vessel is Elsa Keller, a woman Ehrlich has been ordered to return to Germany safely along with whatever secrets she carries. When Ehrlich's fiercely Nazi chief officer Kirchner commits an atrocity, the British pursuit becomes deadly.

The Sea Chase

1955

Stars in My Crown poster
7.1

An orphaned man recalls his upbringing with his aunt and her husband, the parson, in a small Western town during the Reconstruction.

Stars in My Crown

1950

Big Jim McLain poster
5.0

House Un-American Activities Committee investigators Jim McLain and Mal Baxter come to post war Hawaii to track Communist Party activities even though belonging to the party was legal at the time. They are interested in everything from insurance fraud to the sabotage of a U.S. naval vessel.

Big Jim McLain

1952

Alias Jesse James poster
6.1

Insurance salesman Milford Farnsworth sells a man a life policy only to discover that the man in question is the outlaw Jesse James. Milford is sent to buy back the policy, but is robbed by Jesse. And when Jesse learns that Milford's boss is on the way out with more cash, he plans to rob him too and have Milford get killed in the robbery while dressed as Jesse, and collect on the policy.

Alias Jesse James

1959

Carbine Williams poster
6.5

David Marshall Williams is sent to a prison farm where he works in the tool shop and eventually develops the precursor of the famous M-1 Carbine automatic rifle used in World War II.

Carbine Williams

1952

Horizons West poster
6.3

Following the Civil War, brothers Dan and Neil Hammond return to Texas, where ambitious Dan turns to rustling and then shady land deals to build an empire. Being held for a murder, he's rescued from a lynch mob by Neil, now the Marshal, but they have an inevitable falling-out.

Horizons West

1952

The People Against O'Hara poster
5.8

A defense attorney jeopardizes his career to save his client.

The People Against O'Hara

1951

Wyoming Mail poster
5.2

In 1869, the United States begins a railroad mail service to the West Coast which proves highly tempting to train robbers, in particular an organized gang with one of the mail's supposed guardians in their pay. Prizefighter Steve Davis, a former army intelligence man, is hired to track down the gang and save the Territorial Mail Service. Steve goes undercover in territorial prison, leans Morse Code from a fellow prisoner, breaks jail, infiltrates the gang...and finds time to romance dance-hall singer Mary, who proves to have hidden depths...

Wyoming Mail

1950

Island in the Sky poster
6.2

A C-47 transport plane, named the Corsair, makes a forced landing in the frozen wastelands of Labrador, and the plane's pilot, Captain Dooley, must keep his men alive in deadly conditions while awaiting rescue.

Island in the Sky

1953

Wagon Master poster
6.7

Two young horse traders guide a Mormon wagon train to the San Juan Valley and encounter rugged terrain, the cutthroat Clegg gang, hospitable Navajo, and moral challenges on the journey.

Wagon Master

1950

The Veils of Bagdad poster
6.8

Antar is sent by Suleiman, head of the Ottoman Empire, to Bagdad to prevent Hammam, Pasha of Bagdad, from purchasing the services of local leader Mustapha to unite the hill tribes and overthrow the emperor. The intrigue mounts as Antar falls in love with dancer Selima, who tries to avenge her father's death against Hammam's right-hand-man Kasseim, whose wife Rosanna has fallen in love with Antar!

The Veils of Bagdad

1953

Many Rivers to Cross poster
6.5

Robert Taylor and Eleanor Parker star as a Kentucky backwoodsman and the woman who will NOT let anything interfere with her plans to marry him in this humorous romantic adventure through the American Frontier of 1798.

Many Rivers to Cross

1955

Hellgate poster
6.7

A man is framed and sent to the toughest prison in the territory.

Hellgate

1952

The First Traveling Saleslady poster
5.6

At the turn of the century Rose and ex-showbiz friend Molly get involved in selling steel. When they come unstuck with corsets they embark on the even more hazardous project of selling barbed wire to highly suspicious Texas cowboys.

The First Traveling Saleslady

1956

Flame of the Islands poster
4.7

An administrative assistant who may or may not have been the mistress of her firm’s deceased client receives a payout from the dead man’s widow and uses it to buy a stake in a Caribbean casino. In addition to being a neophyte empresario she’s a nightclub singer and several men lust after her.

Flame of the Islands

1955

Iron Man poster
6.2

An ambitious coal miner is talked into becoming a boxer by his gambler brother.

Iron Man

1951

Sierra poster
5.4

Ring Hassard and his father Jeff, wild horse breakers, live in a hidden mountain eyrie as Jeff is wanted for a murder he didn't commit. Things change when they take in a lost young lady, Riley Martin, who finds that Ring has "never seen a woman close up." Jeff is injured, Ring runs afoul of horse thieves and the law, and Riley (who is a lawyer) labors to clear the Hassards (who others would prefer dead).

Sierra

1950

Gun the Man Down poster
6.5

An outlaw is left for dead by his gang after being shot. A year later, he is released from jail with one thing on his mind: Revenge.

Gun the Man Down

1956

The Girl in White poster
7.1

The first female doctor in New York City comes up against prejudice from male counterparts who feel threatened by her skills. Eventually, though, they come to respect her and romance blossoms between her and the head doctor.

The Girl in White

1952

The Lone Hand poster
5.7

Zachary Hallock and his son Joshua are farmers who live in a frontier town that suffers the assaults of a band of outlaws. After the murder of a Pinkerton's detective, the farmers decide to unite against the bandits, but Hallock rejects the proposal. To the astonishment of his son and his fiancée, Hallock decides to join the outlaws.

The Lone Hand

1953

Her Twelve Men poster
5.9

An inexperienced female teacher is hired at a private elite school for boys where she raises a few eyebrows among the all-male faculty.

Her Twelve Men

1954

Cavalry Scout poster
6.0

Kirby Frye, a former Confederate officer but now a Union Cavalry scout, is sent into Montana territory to locate and retrieve three Gatling Guns stolen from the U.S. Arsenal by outlaws believed to have taken them west to sell to the Soiux and Cheyenne. The trail leads him to Red Bluff where, aided by Claire Corville, he and the audience discover together and real quick like that Martin Gavin, a supposedly-honest operator of a freight line, has the guns and intends to exchange them to the Indians for furs.

Cavalry Scout

1951

The Western: A Lost TV Special poster
NR

A 1958 TV special celebrating westerns featuring John Wayne, John Ford, Gary Cooper, Gene Autry, Gabby Hayes and more.

The Western: A Lost TV Special

1958

Two Lost Worlds poster
4.2

Shipwreck survivors land on an uncharted island inhabited by prehistoric beasts.

Two Lost Worlds

1951

1940s · 4 titles

Series credits

The Red Skelton Show poster
7.4

The Red Skelton Show is an American variety show that was a television staple for two decades, from 1951 to 1971. It was second to Gunsmoke and third to The Ed Sullivan Show in the ratings during that time. Skelton, who had previously been a radio star, had appeared in several motion pictures as well. Although his television series is largely associated with CBS, where it appeared for more than fifteen years, it actually began and ended on NBC. During its run, the program received three Emmy Awards, for Skelton as best comedian and the program as best comedy show during its initial season, and an award for comedy writing in 1961.

The Red Skelton Show

1951

The Ed Sullivan Show poster
6.8

The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June 20, 1948 to Sunday June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in September 1971 by the CBS Sunday Night Movie, which ran only one season and was eventually replaced by other shows. In 2002, The Ed Sullivan Show was ranked #15 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.

The Ed Sullivan Show

1948

Gunsmoke poster
6.7

Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West. The central character is lawman Marshal Matt Dillon, played by William Conrad on radio and James Arness on television.

Gunsmoke

1955

Lux Video Theatre poster
6.7

Lux Video Theatre is an American anthology series that was produced from 1950 until 1959. The series presented both comedy and drama in original teleplays, as well as abridged adaptations of films and plays.

Lux Video Theatre

1950

How the West Was Won poster
7.0

The Macahans, a family from Virginia headed by Zeb Macahan, travel across the country to pioneer a new land and a new home in the American West.

How the West Was Won

1977

McClain's Law poster
7.7

Ex-cop McClain, working on fishing boats after injury retirement, returns to work when his boat partner is killed. Despite opposition from homicide chief, he is reinstated, solves case, stays on despite tensions over his methods.

McClain's Law

1981

No artwork available
6.5

Broadway plays are presented live in condensed one hour versions.

Front Row Center

1945

The Johnny Carson Show poster
7.8

While working as a staff writer on The Red Skelton Show, local Los Angeles television comedian Carson filled in as host when Skelton was injured during a show rehearsal. As a result of Carson’s performance, CBS created the primetime variety program: The Johnny Carson Show, a traditional potpourri of comedy, music, dance, skits and monologues. The short-lived 1955-56 series served as a precursor of what would come later for Carson, planting the seeds for sketches he would perform on the later The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson such as "Mighty Carson Art Players".

The Johnny Carson Show

1955