Dennis Weaver (actor): Minor movie performer best remembered for TV roles in Gunsmoke, McCloud, and Steven Spielberg’s Duel
Dennis Weaver, best known for his roles in the television series Gunsmoke and McCloud, and for his driver-in-distress in Steven Spielberg’s made-for-TV thriller Duel, died at age 81 on Feb. 24 at his home in the southwestern Colorado town of Ridgway.
Born in Joplin, Mo., on June 4, 1924, Weaver studied at New York’s Actors Studio. He made his Broadway debut in Out West of 8th, directed by Burgess Meredith, and later played opposite Shelley Winters in a stage production of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire. He also toured with Shirley Booth and Sidney Blackmer in William Inge’s Come Back, Little Sheba.
In the mid-1950s, Weaver reached small-screen stardom as the dim-witted deputy Chester Goode – for which he won an Emmy in the 1958–1959 season – in the long-running television series Gunsmoke. Following several disappointing attempts at other TV work, including the 1966 series Gentle Ben, Weaver finally hit his stride in the cop series McCloud. As Sam McCloud, a New Mexico cop who teaches worldly Manhattanites a thing or two about solving difficult crimes, Weaver found “the most satisfying role of my career.”
Also on TV, Weaver starred in what is considered one of the best television films ever made, Duel. Directed by a young Steven Spielberg in 1971, Duel follows a driver through the American West as he attempts to evade a mysterious truck driver – his face is never seen – who, for no apparent reason, is out to get him.
Weaver’s big-screen career was far less memorable. He played minor and largely forgettable roles in dozens of films, including Ten Wanted Men, Seven Angry Men, and Dragnet. His best-remembered feature film performance is probably that of a mentally off-kilter motel night watchman in Orson Welles’ 1958 crime thriller Touch of Evil.
Off-screen, Weaver worked for the protection of the environment and served as president of Love Is Feeding Everyone (LIFE), an organization that fed 150,000 needy people a week in Los Angeles County. Additionally, he acted as president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1973–1975.
Peter Benchley (author/screenwriter): 2 of his ocean-centered novels – Jaws and The Deep – became movie hits
Author Peter Benchley, whose 1970s novel Jaws became a literary sensation, died at age 65 at his home in Princeton, New Jersey.
In 1975, Jaws – the tale of a white shark with an insatiable appetite – went on to become one of the biggest box office blockbusters ever. In fact, according to boxofficemojo.com, when adjusted for 2006 ticket prices, Jaws is the seventh most successful motion picture in history in the U.S. and Canada market, with its gross take topping $819 million.
Directed by Steven Spielberg, the film adaptation (by Benchley and Carl Gottlieb) starred Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, and Robert Shaw. It won three Academy Awards (Best Editing, Verna Fields; Best Original Score, John Williams; and Best Sound), and was nominated for Best Film.
Inevitably, there were several sequels though none was nearly as successful – whether commercially or critically – as the original.
Benchley also wrote both the novel and the screenplay for The Island (1980), and all-around critical and commercial disaster starring Michael Caine and David Warner, and wrote the novel on which the inconsequential but commercially successful The Deep (1977), directed by Peter Yates, and starring Nick Nolte and Jacqueline Bisset, was based. (Benchley co-wrote the latter film’s screenplay with Tracy Keenan Wynn [son of veteran actor Keenan Wynn]).