Milburn Stone
Hugh Milburn Stone was an American actor, best known for his role as "Doc" in the Western series Gunsmoke.
Early life
Stone was born in Burrton, Kansas, to Herbert Stone and the former Laura Belfield. He graduated from Burrton High School, where he was active in the drama club, played basketball and sang in a barbershop quartet. Stone's brother, Joe Stone, says their uncle, Fred Stone, was a versatile actor who appeared on Broadway and in circuses).
Although Stone had a congressional appointment to the United States Naval Academy, he turned it down, choosing instead to become an actor with a stock theater company headed by Helen Ross. The Burton town doctor, Joseph Wakefield Myers MD, was the town doctor from 1913 to 1928. Hugh was known to have said he styled his portrayal of a country doctor based on Dr Myers.
Career
In 1919, Stone debuted on stage in a Kansas tent show. He ventured into vaudeville in the late 1920s, and in 1930, he was half of the Stone and Strain song-and-dance act. His Broadway credits include Around the Corner and Jayhawker.
In the 1930s, Stone came to Los Angeles, California, to launch his own screen career. He was featured in the Tailspin Tommy adventure serial for Monogram Pictures. In 1939 he played Stephen Douglass in the movie Young Mr. Lincoln with Henry Fonda and Ward Bond. In 1939 he appeared in When Tomorrow Comes as head busboy. In 1940, he appeared with Marjorie Reynolds, Tristram Coffin, and I. Stanford Jolley in the comedy espionage film Chasing Trouble. That same year, he co-starred with Roy Rogers in the film Colorado in the role of Rogers' brother-gone-wrong.
Stone appeared uncredited in the 1939 film Blackwell's Island. Stone played Dr. Blake in the 1943 film Gung Ho! and a liberal-minded warden in Monogram Pictures' Prison Mutiny also in 1943. Signed by Universal Pictures in 1943, in the films Captive Wild Woman, Jungle Woman, Sherlock Holmes Faces Death,, he became a familiar face in its features and serials, starring as hero Jim Hudson in The Great Alaskan Mystery. In 1944, he portrayed a Ration Board representative in the Universal-produced public service film Prices Unlimited for the U.S. Office of Price Administration and the Office of War Information. One of his film roles was a radio columnist in the Gloria Jean-Kirby Grant musical I'll Remember April. He made such an impression in this film that Universal Studios gave him a starring role in the 1945 serial The Master Key. The same year, he was featured in the Inner Sanctum murder mystery The Frozen Ghost. In 1953, Stone appeared as Charlton Heston's sidekick in Arrowhead, a Western also featuring Brian Keith and Katy Jurado.
In 1955, one of CBS Radio's hit series, the Western Gunsmoke, was adapted for television and recast with different actors for various reasons. Howard McNear, the radio Doc Adams, was replaced by Stone, who gave the role a harder edge consistent with his screen portrayals. He stayed with Gunsmoke through its entire television run, with the exception of 7 episodes in 1971, when Stone required heart surgery and Pat Hingle replaced him as Dr. Chapman. Stone appeared in 604 episodes through 1975, often shown sparring in a friendly manner with co-stars Dennis Weaver and Ken Curtis, who played, respectively, Chester Goode and Festus Haggen.
Personal life
Stone's brother, Joe, was a writer who was the author of scripts for three episodes of Gunsmoke.
Stone was an uncle of the character actress Madge Blake.
In March 1971, Stone had heart bypass surgery at UAB Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama. In June 1980, Stone died of a heart attack in La Jolla. He was buried at the El Camino Memorial Park in Sorrento Valley, San Diego.
Stone had a surviving daughter, Shirley Stone Gleason of Costa Mesa, California, from his first marriage of 12 years to Ellen Morrison, formerly of Delphos, Kansas, who died in 1937.
His second wife, the former Jane Garrison, a native of Hutchinson, Kansas, died in 2002. Stone had married, divorced, and remarried Garrison.
Legacy
In 1968, Stone received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Drama for his work on Gunsmoke.
In 1975, Stone received an honorary doctorate from St. Mary of the Plains College in Dodge City, Kansas, where Gunsmoke was set but not filmed.
For his contribution to the television industry, Milburn Stone has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard. In 1981, Stone was inducted posthumously into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. After his death, he left a legacy for the performing arts in Cecil County in northeastern Maryland, by way of the Milburn Stone Theatre in North East, Maryland.
Selected filmography
Ladies Crave Excitement as Sailor Cheers of the Crowd as Reporter His Night Out as Salesman Rendezvous as Carter's Aide The Fighting Marines as Red - Henchman The Milky Way as Reporter The Princess Comes Across as American Reporter Nobody's Fool as Clerk China Clipper as Radio OperatorThe Three Mesquiteers as JohnMurder with Pictures as Operator Two in a Crowd as Kennedy Rose Bowl as Booster Club Band Member The Man I Marry as Stage manager The Accusing Finger as Convict Banjo on My Knee as Eddie - Sailor Three Smart Girls as Telegraph Desk Clerk A Doctor's Diary as Fred ClarkSwing It, Professor as Lou MorganThey Gave Him a Gun as Defense Attorney Wings Over Honolulu as Telephone Operator The Man in Blue as Henchman 'Dutch'The Wildcatter as EdYou Can't Beat Love as Reporter Wilson The 13th Man as Jimmy MoranBlazing Barriers as Joe WatersReported Missing! as Radio operator Atlantic Flight as Henry Wadsworth 'Pokey' SchultzYouth on Parole as RattyMusic for Madame as Detective Federal Bullets as Tommy Thompson, Federal AgentMr. Boggs Steps Out as BurnsThe Port of Missing Girls as Jim BentonSinners in Paradise as HoneymanWives Under Suspicion as KirkParoled from the Big House as Commissioner DowneyThe Storm as Hagen - officer on SS Orion California Frontier as Mal HalsteadBlackwell's Island as Max Made for Each Other as Newark Official King of the Turf as TaylorTail Spin as Kansas City Mechanic Society Smugglers as Peter GarfieldMystery Plane as 'Skeeter' MilliganThe Spirit of Culver as Instructor Blind Alley as NickYoung Mr. Lincoln as Stephen A. Douglas Stunt Pilot as 'Skeeter' MilliganWhen Tomorrow Comes as Head Busboy Tropic Fury as Thomas E. SnellDanger Flight as Skeeter MilliganFighting Mad as CardiganCrashing Thru as Delos HarringtonNick Carter, Master Detective as Dave KrebsThe Big Guy as Publicity man Charlie McCarthy, Detective as Joe Felton Chasing Trouble as Pat CallahanFramed as Mathew MattisonBlack Friday as Reporter at Execution Johnny Apollo as Main Reporter Enemy Agent as MeekerAn Angel from Texas as 'Pooch' Davis Lillian Russell as Jack - Reporter Public Deb No. 1 as Reporter Colorado as Don Burke alias Captain MasonGive Us Wings as Tex AustinThe Great Plane Robbery as KrebberThe Phantom Cowboy as Stan BordenThe Great Train Robbery as Duke LoganDeath Valley Outlaws as JeffNo Hands on the Clock as FBI Man Frisco Lil as MikeReap the Wild Wind as Lieutenant FarragutPacific Rendezvous as Park Hotel Desk Clerk Rubber Racketeers as AngelInvisible Agent as German Sergeant Police Bullets as Johnny ReillyEyes in the Night as Detective Pete Silent Witness as Racketeer Joe MansonYou Can't Beat the Law as Frank SandersSubmarine Alert as Lt. Winston - Naval Intelligence Keep 'Em Slugging as Duke RedmanCaptive Wild Woman as Fred MasonGet Going as Mr. TuttleDestroyer as Radioman Sherlock Holmes Faces Death as Captain VickeryCorvette K-225 as Canadian Captain The Mad Ghoul as MacklinGung Ho! as Cmdr. BlakeThe Impostor as ChauzelPhantom Lady as District Attorney Weird Woman as Radio Announcer Hat Check Honey as David CourtlandHi, Good Lookin'! as Bill EatonMoon Over Las Vegas as Jim BradleyThe Great Alaskan Mystery as Jim HudsonGambler's Choice as Doctor Twilight on the Prairie as GainsworthJungle Woman as Fred MasonShe Gets Her Man as 'Tommy Gun' TuckerI'll Remember April as Willie WinchesterThe Master Key as Agent Tom BrantSwing Out, Sister as Tim ColbyThe Frozen Ghost as George KeeneOn Stage Everybody as FitzgeraldThe Beautiful Cheat as Lucius HavenStrange Confession as StevensThe Royal Mounted Rides Again as Brad TaggartThe Daltons Ride Again as Parker W. GrahamThe Scarlet Horseman as Narrator Little Giant as Prof. Watkins Smooth as Silk as John KimbleThe Spider Woman Strikes Back as Mr. MooreStrange Conquest as Bert MorrowHer Adventurous Night as Cop #1Inside Job as District Attorney SuttonDanger Woman as Gerald KingLittle Miss Big as Father LennerganThe Michigan Kid as Lanny SladeSmash-Up: The Story of a Woman as Raven Club Announcer, Buck Privates Come Home as AnnouncerTime Out of Mind as Stage Manager Killer Dill as MabooseCass Timberlane as Nestor Purdwin Heading for Heaven as Elwood HardingKiller McCoy as Henchman Train to Alcatraz as Bart KaninThe Judge as Martin StrangThe Green Promise as Reverend Jim BentonSky Dragon as Capt. Tim NortonCalamity Jane and Sam Bass as Abe JonesNo Man of Her Own as PlainclothesmanSnow Dog as Dr. F. J. McKenzieThe Fireball as Jeff DavisBranded as DawsonOperation Pacific as Ground Control Officer Flying Leathernecks as Fleet CIC Radio Operator Roadblock as Ray EvansThe Racket as Member of Craig's Team The Atomic City as Insp. Harold MannThe Savage as Cpl. MartinInvaders from Mars as Capt. RothThe Sun Shines Bright as Horace K. MaydewPickup on South Street as Detective WinokiSecond Chance as Edward DawsonArrowhead as Sandy MacKinnonSiege at Red River as Sgt. Benjamin 'Benjy' GudermanBlack Tuesday as Father SlocumThe Long Gray Line as Capt. John PershingWhite Feather as Commissioner TrentonSmoke Signal as Sgt. MilesThe Private War of Major Benson as Maj. Gen. Wilton J. RamseyGunsmoke as Doc Adams Drango as Col. Bracken