Roger Ewing obit

Roger Ewing, Deputy Marshal Thad Greenwood on ‘Gunsmoke,’ Dies at 83

He was a regular on the legendary CBS Western for two seasons, bridging the gap between characters played by Burt Reynolds and Buck Taylor. 

He was not on the list.

Roger Ewing, the long and lean actor who portrayed the deputy marshal and handyman Thad Greenwood for two seasons on Gunsmoke in the 1960s, has died. He was 83.

A longtime resident of Morro Bay, California, Ewing died Dec. 18, his family reported.

The 6-foot-4 Ewing, then 23, first showed up on CBS’ Gunsmoke as a character named Ben Lukens on an episode that aired in February 1965, then was introduced to viewers as Thad the following October on the third installment of season 11.

A deputy and son of an elderly Oklahoma sheriff (Paul Fix), Thad arrives in Dodge City pursuing four vandals who had caused his dad to have a fatal heart attack but learns his warrant isn’t executable in Dodge. After all four are either killed or captured for stealing cattle, Marshal Matt Dillon (James Arness) asks Thad to stick around as a deputy.

“With Thad’s family gone, Matt, Kitty [Amanda Blake], Doc [Milburn Stone] and Festus [Ken Curtis] sort of adopted him,” he once said. “Anything that needed to be done, you know, an extra hand here, and extra hand there, Thad was aways around. He fit in whenever necessary.”

During a rare rough stretch in the ratings for Gunsmoke, Ewing wound up appearing as Thad on 50 episodes of the series through September 1967 before being dropped.

Roger Lawrence Ewing was born Los Angeles on Jan. 12, 1942. When he was a senior in high school, he said he played Chester (Dennis Weaver’s character) in a variety show satire of Gunsmoke. “I watched [the show] every Saturday night,” he said in a 1966 interview.

After a year in college and work as a lifeguard, Ewing turned to acting and made his onscreen debut in an uncredited role in the 1964 film Ensign Pulver, where his character stuck a beer bottle in a duck’s mouth.

He then showed up on episodes of Bewitched, The Baileys of Balboa, The Bing Crosby Show and Rawhide and in the Frank Sinatra movie None But the Brave, “always being cast as a gangling misfit who looked tall and dumb,” he said.

With the departure of Burt Reynolds (Quint Asper) from Gunsmoke, producers went searching for an actor to fill his “younger actor” slot and hired Ewing as Clayton Thaddeus Greenwood. He came aboard when Arness and CBS were quarreling over salary and ownership of the series, and producers thought he might help replace Arness if things could not be worked out.

When the dispute was resolved after the show was on the verge of being canceled, Thad was phased out, to be ostensibly replaced by Buck Taylor as Newly O’Brien, who remained through Gunsmoke’s 1975 cancellation after its 20th season.

Director John Schlesinger reportedly considered Ewing for the role of Joe Buck in Midnight Cowboy (1969), but the part went to Jon Voight. Around this time, he also was a bachelor on a 1968 episode of The Dating Game, but future Bionic Woman star Lindsay Wagner picked someone else.

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

He quit acting and pursued photography, traveling throughout Europe, Russia, Mexico and the South Pacific. He also was active in local politics and ran for a city council seat in Morro Bay in 2003.

 

Actor

Tuesday Weld in Play It As It Lays (1972)

Play It As It Lays

6.3

Nelson

1972

 

Death Valley Days (1952)

Death Valley Days

7.5

TV Series

Frank Harris

1970

1 episode

 

Smith! (1969)

Smith!

5.7

Donald Maxwell

1969

 

The Mothers-In-Law (1967)

The Mothers-In-Law

7.3

TV Series

Carter Case

1967

1 episode

 

Gunsmoke (1955)

Gunsmoke

8.1

TV Series

ThadBen LukensClayton Thaddeus Greenwood

1965–1967

52 episodes

 

Rawhide (1959)

Rawhide

7.9

TV Series

Billy Wallace

1965

1 episode

 

Frank Sinatra and Takeshi Katô in None But the Brave (1965)

None But the Brave

6.4

Pvt. Swensholm

1965

 

The Bing Crosby Show (1964)

The Bing Crosby Show

6.1

TV Series

Eddie Fox

1964

3 episodes

 

The Baileys of Balboa (1964)

The Baileys of Balboa

7.7

TV Series

Norman

1964

1 episode

 

Elizabeth Montgomery, Agnes Moorehead, and Dick York in Bewitched (1964)

Bewitched

7.6

TV Series

Marvin Grogan (Monster)

1964

1 episode

 

Ensign Pulver (1964)

Ensign Pulver

5.9

Jackson (uncredited)

1964

 

Soundtrack

Gunsmoke (1955)

Gunsmoke

8.1

TV Series

performer: "Pawnee River Here I Come" (uncredited)

1966

1 episode

 

Self

"Dating Game, The" Paul Lynde C. 1967

The Dating Game

5.8

TV Series

Self - Contestant

1968

1 episode