Roger Ewing Michael Ochs Archives /Getty Images Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Send an Email Print the Article Post a Comment 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. THR Newsletters Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day Subscribe Sign Up Live Feed 'Mayor of Kingstown' Star Taylor Handley Unpacks the Scene That Shattered His Character Television Academy Emmys Set AI Guidance, Drop "Television" From Best Movie Category Name RuPaul's Drag Race How to Stream 'RuPaul's Drag Race' Season 18 Online international Radial Entertainment, BondIt Take 'Cheaters' Rights Worldwide (Exclusive) Live Feed Netflix's 'Black Mirror' Renewed for Season 8 With Creator Charlie Brooker "Activated and Whirring Away" on Ideas CBS News CBS News Taps Adriana Diaz and Kelly O'Grady as 'CBS Saturday Morning' Anchors Live Feed 'Mayor of Kingstown' Star Taylor Handley Unpacks the Scene That Shattered His Character Television Academy Emmys Set AI Guidance, Drop "Television" From Best Movie Category Name RuPaul's Drag Race How to Stream 'RuPaul's Drag Race' Season 18 Online international Radial Entertainment, BondIt Take 'Cheaters' Rights Worldwide (Exclusive) Live Feed Netflix's 'Black Mirror' Renewed for Season 8 With Creator Charlie Brooker "Activated and Whirring Away" on Ideas CBS News CBS News Taps Adriana Diaz and Kelly O'Grady as 'CBS Saturday Morning' Anchors