John Payne was also a television success story. He starred in the western The Restless Gun. It was a television show that aired on NBC from 1957 to 1959. Vint Bonner, a lone cowboy and former Confederate soldier, was played by Payne. Each week for 30 episodes, viewers would follow Vint as he tracked down criminals who had escaped from the local jail. During this time, Payne also appeared in other television shows including The Life of Riley, General Electric Theater, and The Twilight Zone. He died in 1959 at the age of 44.