Acting
May 4, 1930
Los Angeles, California, USA
Will Hutchins
Acting
Biography
Will Hutchins (born Marshall Lowell Hutchason), is an American actor most noted for playing the lead role of the young lawyer from the Oklahoma Territory, Tom Brewster, in sixty-nine episodes of the Warner Bros. Western television series Sugarfoot, which aired on ABC from 1957 to 1961. Hutchins was discovered by a talent scout for Warner Bros., who changed his name from Marshall Lowell Hutchason to Will Hutchins. The young actor's easygoing manner was compared to Will Rogers, the Oklahoma humorist. His contract led him to guest appearances in Warner Bros. Television programs, such as Conflict. Hutchins was also cast as a guest star on Cheyenne, Bronco, Maverick and 77 Sunset Strip. He had small roles in the Warners movies Bombers B-52, Lafayette Escadrille, and No Time for Sergeants where he screen tested for the lead of Will Stockdale with James Garner playing the psychiatrist. Hutchins leapt to national fame in the lead of Sugarfoot. During the series' run he guest-starred on other Warner Bros shows such as The Roaring 20's, Bronco, and Surfside 6. Warners tried him in the lead of a feature, Young and Eager aka Claudelle Inglish with Diane McBain. He tried another pilot for a series, Howie, that was not picked up and war in the Warners war film with Jeff Chandler, Merrill's Marauders, a picture filmed in the Philippine Islands and Chandler's last acting role. Hutchins guest-starred on Gunsmoke and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. While appearing in a play in Chicago in late 1963, he was flown to Los Angeles to shoot a television pilot for MGM, Take Me to Your Leader, in which Hutchins played a Martian salesman who came to Earth. Though the pilot was not picked up, it led MGM to sign him for Spinout, in which he co-starred as Lt. Tracy Richards ("Dick Tracy" backwards) alongside Elvis Presley. In 1965, Hutchins co-starred with Jack Nicholson and Warren Oates in Monte Hellman's The Shooting. In 1968–1969, Hutchins starred as Dagwood Bumstead in a CBS television version of the comic strip Blondie. He travelled to South Africa to appear in Shangani Patrol. Back in the United States, Hutchins guest-starred on Love, American Style, Emergency!, Chase, Movin' On, The Streets of San Francisco, and The Quest. He was in The Horror at 37,000 Feet, Slumber Party '57, and The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington. He also began appearing in circuses as Patches the Clown.
Feature Films (20)
Brigadier General Frank D. Merrill leads the 3,000 American volunteers of his 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional), aka "Merrill's Marauders", behind Japanese lines across Burma to Myitkyina, pushing beyond their limits and fighting pitched battles at every strong-point.
Merrill's Marauders
A commercial-jet captain (Chuck Connors) has ghosts on board from stones of an English abbey being shipped overseas.
The Horror at 37,000 Feet
Two miners agree to guide a mysterious woman, who has appeared in their camp from nowhere, to a nearby town; but soon, because of her erratic behavior, they begin to suspect that her true purpose is quite different.
The Shooting
Georgia farm boy Will Stockdale is about to bust with pride. He’s been drafted. Will’s ready. But is Uncle Sam ready for Will?
No Time for Sergeants
Some of TV and film's popular western actors reunite in this tribute special hosted by Glenn Ford.
When the West Was Fun: A Western Reunion
Television & Series (22)
Cheyenne Bodie was a big man, a former army scout who went west after the American Civil War and drifted from job to job, here a cowboy, there a lawman, and always a larger-than-life hero. CHEYENNE is an American western television series of 108 black-and-white episodes broadcast on ABC from 1955 to 1963. The show was the first hour-long western, and in fact the first hour-long dramatic series of any kind, with continuing characters, to last more than one season. It was also the first series to be made by a major Hollywood film studio which did not derive from its established film properties, and the first of a long chain of Warner Brothers original series produced by William T. Orr.
Cheyenne
Surfside 6 was an ABC television series which aired from 1960 to 1962. The show centered on a Miami Beach detective agency set on a houseboat and featured Troy Donahue as Sandy Winfield II; Van Williams as Kenny Madison; and Lee Patterson as Dave Thorne. Diane McBain co-starred as socialite Daphne Dutton, whose yacht was berthed next to their houseboat. Margarita Sierra also had a supporting role as Cha Cha O'Brien, an entertainer who worked at The Boom Boom Room, a popular Miami Beach hangout at the Fontainebleau Hotel, directly across the street from Surfside 6. Surfside 6 was in fact a real address in Miami Beach, where an unrelated houseboat was moored at the time; it can also be seen in the sweeping aerial establishing shot of the Fontainebleu in 1964's Goldfinger.
Surfside 6
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.
