Robert Horton, TV’s 'Wagon Train' Star, Dies at 91
He was not on the list.
He quit the show after five seasons and starred on Broadway
as con man Bill Starbuck in a musical version of 'The Rainmaker.'
Robert Horton, who played frontier scout Flint McCullough on
the long-running TV Western Wagon Train, has died. He was 91.
Horton, who also starred as the title character in another TV
Western, A Man Called Shenandoah, died March 9 in Los Angeles. His niece, Joan
Evans, told The New York Times that her uncle had been injured in a fall in
November.
The handsome actor starred on Wagon Train from the start of
the series in September 1957 through the end of its fifth season in June 1962,
when he quit the show. The very popular Wagon Train — about a trek from
Missouri to California — aired on NBC while he was there, then shifted to ABC
for its final three seasons.
Soon after he departed, Horton starred on Broadway as the
charismatic con man Bill Starbuck in 110 in the Shade, a musical adaptation of
the 1956 film The Rainmaker (his part was made famous by Burt Lancaster in the
movie). The production ran for more than 300 performances through summer 1964.
On ABC’s A Man Called Shenandoah, which lasted just a season
(1965-66), Horton played a cowboy in the 1870s who develops amnesia after he’s
shot and left for dead. He also performed the theme song.
A Los Angeles native who graduated from the University of
California, Horton made his Broadway debut in the 1943 comedy Slightly Married.
His first movie role came in Lewis Milestone’s A Walk in the Sun (1945), and he
later appeared in such films as Bright Road (1953), Men of the Fighting Lady
(1954) and the Japanese sci-fi cult favorite The Green Slime (1968).
His TV résumé includes The Lone Ranger, The Millionaire,
Kings Row, The Sheriff of Cochise, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Police Woman,
Murder, She Wrote and the daytime soap opera As the World Turns.
Survivors also include his wife, Marilynn, whom he married
in 1960.
Filmography
1957-62|| Wagon Train || Flint McCullough ||
Year Title Role Notes
1945 A Walk in the
Sun Jack Uncredited
1951 The Tanks Are
Coming Capt. Bob Horner Uncredited
1952 Return of the
Texan Dr. Jim Harris
1952 Apache War
Smoke Tom Herrera
1952 Pony Soldier Jess Calhoun
1953 The Story of
Three Loves Friendly Young
Man on Ship (segment
"Mademoiselle"), Uncredited
1953 Bright Road Dr. Mitchell
1953 Code Two Russ Hartley
1953 Arena Jackie Roach
1954 Prisoner of
War Francis Aloysius
Belney
1954 Men of the
Fighting Lady Ensign Neil
Conovan
1956 The Man Is
Armed Dr. Michael Benning
1966 The Dangerous
Days of Kiowa Jones Kiowa Jones TV movie
1968 The Green
Slime Commander Jack Rankin
1969 The Spy
Killer John Smith TV movie
1970 Foreign
Exchange TV movie
1988 Red River Mr. Melville, Cattle Buyer TV movie
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