Our beloved Rifleman guest actors personal careers

[wildwest]

It always amazes me when I read the bios on a lot of actors from TV or the movies. Of course many of the men served in the war and had distinguished military careers.
Many of the female actors were accomplished singers and dancers. Let's list some of the people who may have played dubious parts but otherwise impressed us. I guess when you get 'the acting bug' you cannot escape it

From a previous post Cowgirl wrote about Carleton Carpenter. it really impressed me.

The Coward - Carleton Carpenter is a song and dance man. In The Rifleman he played a harmonica.
He appeared on television, and made many records. He wrote special material for Debbie Reynolds, Kaye Ballard, Marlene Dietrich and Hermione Gingold, and also scripts for films and television. Joining ASCAP in 1955, his other popular-song compositions include "I Wouldn't Mind", "Ev'ry Other Day", "Cabin In the Woods", "A Little Love" and "Come Away".
*His duet of "Aba Daba Honeymoon" with Debbie Reynolds from their film "Two Weeks With Love," was the very first soundtrack recording to become a No. 1 gold record.

and Dana said Debbie and Carleton remained best friends. She even wrote the forward for his autobiography.


Adam Williams was on Rifleman 6 times, once as Jake Pardee

Williams was born in New York City. A veteran "bad guy" actor of 1950s film and TV, he began his career after distinguished World War II military service as a United States Navy pilot, for which he received the Navy Cross. An accomplished pilot Williams also worked as an examiner for the FAA. Who woulda thought that??


John Milford appeared on Rifleman 11 times, one of my favorites. You could not watch a western of the times and not see John.

Born in Johnstown, New York, Milford studied civil engineering at Union College but chose to pursue his first love, acting. He "worked for some years with Los Angeles' Bureau of Engineering, Department of Public Works.” Throughout his career Milford continued to work in the theater. He founded the Chamber Theater at 3759 Cahuenga Blvd, pioneering Equity Waiver productions in Los Angeles, and helped launch the careers of actors such as Richard Chamberlain and Vic Morrow. Milford's Los Angeles Times obituary credits him with using his engineering background to help create the original design for the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. Impressive!!


Edgar Buchanan, one of the Doc Burrages and also famous for Petticoat Junction, Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies. It was fitting he cou;d play a doctor because he really was a dentist!

The son of Dr. and Mrs. William Edgar Buchanan, he was born in Missouri, and moved with his family to Oregon when he was seven. In 1928, he earned a DDS degree from North Pacific College School of Dentistry, which later became Oregon Health & Science University School of Dentistry. His wife Mildred and he, classmates in dental school, were married in 1928, the year he graduated. In 1939, they moved from Eugene, Oregon, to Altadena, California, where they relocated their dental practice.

Who are some of your favorites??

[Dana]

John Harmon, who played Eddie, owned a book store. He specialized in early editions on Mark Twain books.

[cowgirl]

Phyllis Avery continued her career as a prolific guest star of TV anthologies and crime dramas and reinvented herself as a successful real estate broker in west L.A. during the 60s (often selling houses to people she had worked with in her acting past).

When Dennis Cross retired from acting, he went to work as a Vice President of the Doctors Insurance Company in Santa Monica.

[wildwest]

I just love the 'back story' on all of these people