Milburn Stone

Milburn Stone
Hugh Milburn Stone (July 5, 1904 – June 12, 1980) was an American actor, best known for his role as "Doc" (Dr. Galen Adams) on the CBS Western series Gunsmoke.
Early life
Stone was born in Burrton, Kansas, to Herbert Stone and the former Laura Belfield. There, 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.
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 (1936) and Jayhawker (1934).
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 (uncredited). 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 (1943), Jungle Woman (1943), Sherlock Holmes Faces Death [Captain Pat Vickery], (1944), he became a familiar face in its features and serials, starring as hero Jim Hudson in The Great Alaskan Mystery (1944). 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 (and a similar characterization) 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 (William Conrad was judged too obese to play Matt Dillon on camera, Georgia Ellis wasn't viewed as quite telegenic enough to portray Kitty on television, etc.). Howard McNear, the radio Doc Adams (who later played Floyd the barber on television's The Andy Griffith Show), 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 a cousin 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 (born circa 1926) 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 (1935) as Sailor (uncredited)
Cheers of the Crowd (1935) as Reporter (uncredited)
His Night Out (1935) as Salesman (uncredited)
Rendezvous (1935) as Carter's Aide (uncredited)
The Fighting Marines (1935, Serial) as Red - Henchman [Ch. 2,4-7,10,11] (uncredited)
The Milky Way (1936) as Reporter (uncredited)
The Princess Comes Across (1936) as American Reporter (uncredited)
Nobody's Fool (1936) as Clerk (uncredited)
China Clipper (1936) as Radio Operator
The Three Mesquiteers (1936) as John
Murder with Pictures (1936) as Operator (uncredited)
Two in a Crowd (1936) as Kennedy (uncredited)
Rose Bowl (1936) as Booster Club Band Member (uncredited)
The Man I Marry (1936) as Stage manager (uncredited)
The Accusing Finger (1936) as Convict (uncredited)
Banjo on My Knee (1936) as Eddie - Sailor (uncredited)
Three Smart Girls (1936) as Telegraph Desk Clerk (uncredited)
A Doctor's Diary (1937) as Fred Clark
Swing It, Professor (1937) as Lou Morgan
They Gave Him a Gun (1937) as Defense Attorney (uncredited)
Wings Over Honolulu (1937) as Telephone Operator (uncredited)
The Man in Blue (1937) as Henchman 'Dutch'
The Wildcatter (1937) as Ed
You Can't Beat Love (1937) as Reporter Wilson (uncredited)
The 13th Man (1937) as Jimmy Moran
Blazing Barriers (1937) as Joe Waters
Reported Missing! (1937) as Radio operator (uncredited)
Atlantic Flight (1937) as Henry Wadsworth 'Pokey' Schultz
Youth on Parole (1937) as Ratty
Music for Madame (1937) as Detective (uncredited)
Federal Bullets (1937) as Tommy Thompson, Federal Agent
Mr. Boggs Steps Out (1938) as Burns
The Port of Missing Girls (1938) as Jim Benton
Sinners in Paradise (1938) as Honeyman
Wives Under Suspicion (1938) as Kirk
Paroled from the Big House (1938) as Commissioner Downey
The Storm (1938) as Hagen - officer on SS Orion (uncredited)
California Frontier (1938) as Mal Halstead
Blackwell's Island (1938) as Max (deputy commissioner) (uncredited)
Made for Each Other (1939) as Newark Official (uncredited)
King of the Turf (1939) as Taylor
Tail Spin (1939) as Kansas City Mechanic (uncredited)
Society Smugglers (1939) as Peter Garfield
Mystery Plane (1939) as 'Skeeter' Milligan
The Spirit of Culver (1939) as Instructor (uncredited)
Blind Alley (1939) as Nick
Young Mr. Lincoln (1939) as Stephen A. Douglas (uncredited)
Stunt Pilot (1939) as 'Skeeter' Milligan
When Tomorrow Comes (1939) as Head Busboy (uncredited)
Tropic Fury (1939) as Thomas E. Snell
Danger Flight (1939) as Skeeter Milligan
Fighting Mad (1939) as Cardigan
Crashing Thru (1939) as Delos Harrington
Nick Carter, Master Detective (1939) as Dave Krebs
The Big Guy (1939) as Publicity man (uncredited)
Charlie McCarthy, Detective (1939) as Joe Felton (uncredited)
Chasing Trouble (1940) as Pat Callahan
Framed (1940) as Mathew Mattison
Black Friday (1940) as Reporter at Execution (uncredited)
Johnny Apollo (1940) as Main Reporter (uncredited)
Enemy Agent (1940) as Meeker
An Angel from Texas (1940) as 'Pooch' Davis (uncredited)
Lillian Russell (1940) as Jack - Reporter (uncredited)
Public Deb No. 1 (1940) as Reporter (uncredited)
Colorado (1940) as Don Burke alias Captain Mason
Give Us Wings (1940) as Tex Austin
The Great Plane Robbery (1940 film) as Krebber
The Phantom Cowboy (1941) as Stan Borden
The Great Train Robbery (1941) as Duke Logan
Death Valley Outlaws (1941) as Jeff
No Hands on the Clock (1941) as FBI Man (uncredited)
Frisco Lil (1942) as Mike
Reap the Wild Wind (1942) as Lieutenant Farragut
Pacific Rendezvous (1942) as Park Hotel Desk Clerk (uncredited)
Rubber Racketeers (1942) as Angel
Invisible Agent (1942) as German Sergeant (uncredited)
Police Bullets (1942) as Johnny Reilly
Eyes in the Night (1942) as Detective Pete (uncredited)
Silent Witness (1943) as Racketeer Joe Manson
You Can't Beat the Law (1943) as Frank Sanders
Submarine Alert (1943) as Lt. Winston - Naval Intelligence (uncredited)
Keep 'Em Slugging (1943) as Duke Redman
Captive Wild Woman (1943) as Fred Mason
Get Going (1943) as Mr. Tuttle
Destroyer (1943) as Radioman (uncredited)
Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943) as Captain Vickery
Corvette K-225 (1943) as Canadian Captain (uncredited)
The Mad Ghoul (1943) as Macklin
Gung Ho! (1943) as Cmdr. Blake
The Impostor (1944) as Chauzel
Phantom Lady (1944) as District Attorney (voice)
Weird Woman (1944) as Radio Announcer (voice, uncredited)
Hat Check Honey (1944) as David Courtland
Hi, Good Lookin'! (1944) as Bill Eaton
Moon Over Las Vegas (1944) as Jim Bradley
The Great Alaskan Mystery (1944, Serial) as Jim Hudson
Gambler's Choice (1944) as Doctor (uncredited)
Twilight on the Prairie (1944) as Gainsworth
Jungle Woman (1944) as Fred Mason
She Gets Her Man (1945) as 'Tommy Gun' Tucker
I'll Remember April (1945) as Willie Winchester
The Master Key (1945, Serial) as Agent Tom Brant
Swing Out, Sister (1945) as Tim Colby
The Frozen Ghost (1945) as George Keene
On Stage Everybody (1945) as Fitzgerald
The Beautiful Cheat (1945) as Lucius Haven
Strange Confession (1945) as Stevens
The Royal Mounted Rides Again (1945, Serial) as Brad Taggart
The Daltons Ride Again (1945) as Parker W. Graham
The Scarlet Horseman (1946, Serial) as Narrator (voice, uncredited)
Little Giant (1946) as Prof. Watkins (voice, uncredited)
Smooth as Silk (1946) as John Kimble
The Spider Woman Strikes Back (1946) as Mr. Moore
Strange Conquest (1946) as Bert Morrow
Her Adventurous Night (1946) as Cop #1
Inside Job (1946) as District Attorney Sutton
Danger Woman (1946) as Gerald King
Little Miss Big (1946) as Father Lennergan
The Michigan Kid (1947) as Lanny Slade
Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman (1947) as Raven Club Announcer (voice, uncredited)
Buck Privates Come Home (1947) as Announcer
Time Out of Mind (1947 film) as Stage Manager (uncredited)
Killer Dill (1947) as Maboose
Cass Timberlane (1947) as Nestor Purdwin (uncredited)
Heading for Heaven (1947) as Elwood Harding
Killer McCoy (1947) as Henchman (uncredited)
Train to Alcatraz (1948) as Bart Kanin
The Judge (1949) as Martin Strang
The Green Promise (1949) as Reverend Jim Benton
Sky Dragon (1949) as Capt. Tim Norton
Calamity Jane and Sam Bass (1949) as Abe Jones
No Man of Her Own (1950) as Plainclothesman
Snow Dog (1950) as Dr. F. J. McKenzie
The Fireball (1950) as Jeff Davis
Branded (1950) as Dawson
Operation Pacific (1951) as Ground Control Officer (uncredited)
Flying Leathernecks (1951) as Fleet CIC Radio Operator (uncredited)
Roadblock (1951) as Ray Evans
The Racket (1951) as Member of Craig's Team (uncredited)
The Atomic City (1952) as Insp. Harold Mann
The Savage (1952) as Cpl. Martin
Invaders from Mars (1953) as Capt. Roth
The Sun Shines Bright (1953) as Horace K. Maydew
Pickup on South Street (1953) as Detective Winoki
Second Chance (1953) as Edward Dawson
Arrowhead (1953) as Sandy MacKinnon
Siege at Red River (1954) as Sgt. Benjamin 'Benjy' Guderman
Black Tuesday (1954) as Father Slocum
The Long Gray Line (1955) as Capt. John Pershing
White Feather (1955) as Commissioner Trenton
Smoke Signal (1955) as Sgt. Miles
The Private War of Major Benson (1955) as Maj. Gen. Wilton J. Ramsey
Gunsmoke (1955-1975, TV Series) as Doc Adams (final appearance)
Drango (1957) as Col. Bracken
Notes
References
External links
1904 births
1980 deaths
20th-century American male actors
Western (genre) television actors
Male actors from San Diego
American male film actors
American male television actors
Outstanding Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Drama Series Primetime Emmy Award winners
Male actors from Kansas
People from Harvey County, Kansas
Male actors from Greater Los Angeles
Actors from San Diego