Buck Taylor

Walter Clarence "Buck" Taylor, III (born May 13, 1938) is an American actor and water color artist best known for his role as gunsmith-turned-deputy Newly O'Brien in 113 episodes during the last eight seasons of CBS's Gunsmoke television series (1967–1975). In recent years, he has painted the portrait of his friend and Gunsmoke costar James Arness. Taylor's painting specialty is the American West, and each year, he creates the posters for several Texas rodeos. Taylor lives with his second wife on a ranch near Fort Worth, Texas. --- Taylor was born in Hollywood, California, to Mr. and Mrs. Walter Taylor, Jr. He has an older sister, Faydean Taylor Tharp (born ca. 1931) of the Greater Los Angeles Area. His father was the character actor Dub Taylor, sometimes known as "Cannonball" Taylor and a native of Richmond, Virginia. Buck Taylor was born in the same year that his father got his first acting role in the film You Can't Take It With You. Dub Taylor, one of cinema's most prolific supporting actors, appeared with dozens of leading actors, including John Wayne and the musicians Tex Ritter and Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. Buck grew up on the various Hollywood sets. Buck Taylor was close to his father's Texas friend, the Western actor Chill Wills. Taylor graduated from North Hollywood High School and studied theatre arts at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. In 1960, he tried out for the Olympic Games in gymnastics. He served two years in the United States Navy. Taylor's first screen role was as Trooper Shattuck in the 1961 episode "Image of a Drawn Sword" on CBS's Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater. He appeared on the sitcoms, ABC's The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet and CBS's My Favorite Martian, starring Ray Walston and Bill Bixby. He was cast twice in the 1963-1964 ABC series The Greatest Show on Earth, a Desilu circus drama series starring Jack Palance. He portrayed Mickey Vecchione in the 1963 episode "My Son the Social Worker" on the ABC drama series, Going My Way, starring Gene Kelly as a Roman Catholic priest inNew York City. --- In 1961, Taylor married the actress Judy Ann Nugent, who was a sister-in-law of actor Nick Adams. The couple divorced in 1983. They had three sons: Adam Carlyle Taylor (1966–1994), Matthew Taylor (born 1970), and Cooper Glenn Taylor (born 1975). Adam was an assistant director, and Matthew and Cooper are Hollywood stunt men who were reared in Montana. Taylor is the father-in-law of actress/producer Anne Lockhart (born 1953), the widow of Adam Taylor, who died three days before his 28th birthday in a highway accident in Madison County, Montana. Anne is the daughter of actress June Lockhart. Taylor has two grandsons, Carlyle and Zane Taylor, the sons of Adam and Anne. Taylor and current wife Goldie, a flight attendant, met in 1995 at a quarter horse show, where his paintings were being exhibited. They wed after a three-month courtship, after being happily married for many years they now run a ranch together along the Brazos river in Texas.