Milburn Stone
Hugh Milburn Stone was an American actor, best known for his role as "Doc" on the CBS Western series Gunsmoke.
Background
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. His uncle, Fred Stone, was a versatile actor who appeared on Broadway and in circuses.His 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.
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 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 Douglas 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 in 1943. Signed by Universal Pictures in 1943, in the film Captive Wild Woman, Jungle Woman, Sherlock Holmes Faces Death ,, he became a familiar face in its features and serials. 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 1955, one of CBS Radio's hit series, the Western Gunsmoke, was adapted for television and recast with experienced screen actors. 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.
Death
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.Personal life
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.and Milburn Stone in The Port of Missing Girls
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.
A painting of the Doc Adams character was commissioned from Gary Hawk, a painter from Stone's home state of Kansas. When then-U.S. President Ronald W. Reagan, a friend of Stone's, heard about the painting, Hawk was invited to the Oval Office to present the artwork to the President. Stone lived to see Reagan emerge as the likely Republican nominee for President in 1980, but not to witness Reagan's defeat of Jimmy Carter, since Stone died in June 1980, and Reagan was not elected until November 1980.
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 Operator
- The Three Mesquiteers as John
- Murder 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 Clark
- Swing It, Professor as Lou Morgan
- They Gave Him a Gun as Defense Attorney
- Wings Over Honolulu as Telephone Operator
- The Man in Blue as Henchman 'Dutch'
- The Wildcatter as Ed
- You Can't Beat Love as Reporter Wilson
- The 13th Man as Jimmy Moran
- Blazing Barriers as Joe Waters
- Reported Missing as Radio operator
- Atlantic Flight as Henry Wadsworth 'Pokey' Schultz
- Youth on Parole as Ratty
- Music for Madame as Detective
- Federal Bullets as Tommy Thompson, Federal Agent
- Mr. Boggs Steps Out as Burns
- The Port of Missing Girls as Jim Benton
- Sinners in Paradise as Honeyman
- Wives Under Suspicion as Kirk
- Paroled from the Big House as Commissioner Downey
- The Storm as Hagen - officer on SS Orion
- California Frontier as Mal Halstead
- Blackwell's Island as Max
- Made for Each Other as Newark Official
- King of the Turf as Taylor
- Tail Spin as Kansas City Mechanic
- Society Smugglers as Peter Garfield
- Mystery Plane as 'Skeeter' Milligan
- The Spirit of Culver as Instructor
- Blind Alley as Nick
- Young Mr. Lincoln as Stephen A. Douglas
- Stunt Pilot as 'Skeeter' Milligan
- When Tomorrow Comes as Head Busboy
- Tropic Fury as Thomas E. Snell
- Danger Flight as Skeeter Milligan
- Fighting Mad as Cardigan
- Crashing Thru as Delos Harrington
- Nick Carter, Master Detective as Dave Krebs
- The Big Guy as Publicity man
- Charlie McCarthy, Detective as Joe Felton
- Chasing Trouble as Pat Callahan
- Framed as Mathew Mattison
- Black Friday as Reporter at Execution
- Johnny Apollo as Main Reporter
- Enemy Agent as Meeker
- An Angel from Texas as 'Pooch' Davis
- Lillian Russell as Jack - Reporter
- Public Deb No. 1 as Reporter
- Colorado as Don Burke alias Captain Mason
- Give Us Wings as Tex Austin
- The Great Plane Robbery as Krebber
- The Phantom Cowboy as Stan Borden
- The Great Train Robbery as Duke Logan
- Death Valley Outlaws as Jeff
- No Hands on the Clock as FBI Man
- Frisco Lil as Mike
- Reap the Wild Wind as Lieutenant Farragut
- Pacific Rendezvous as Park Hotel Desk Clerk
- Rubber Racketeers as Angel
- Invisible Agent as German Sergeant
- Police Bullets as Johnny Reilly
- Eyes in the Night as Detective Pete
- Silent Witness as Racketeer Joe Manson
- You Can't Beat the Law as Frank Sanders
- Submarine Alert as Lt. Winston - Naval Intelligence
- Keep 'Em Slugging as Duke Redman
- Captive Wild Woman as Fred Mason
- Get Going as Mr. Tuttle
- Destroyer as Radioman
- Sherlock Holmes Faces Death as Captain Vickery
- Corvette K-225 as Canadian Captain
- The Mad Ghoul as Macklin
- Gung Ho! as Cmdr. Blake
- The Impostor as Chauzel
- Phantom Lady as District Attorney
- Weird Woman as Radio Announcer
- Hat Check Honey as David Courtland
- Hi, Good Lookin'! as Bill Eaton
- Moon Over Las Vegas as Jim Bradley
- The Great Alaskan Mystery as Jim Hudson
- Gambler's Choice as Doctor
- Twilight on the Prairie as Gainsworth
- Jungle Woman as Fred Mason
- She Gets Her Man as 'Tommy Gun' Tucker
- I'll Remember April as Willie Winchester
- The Master Key as Agent Tom Brant
- Swing Out, Sister as Tim Colby
- The Frozen Ghost as George Keene
- On Stage Everybody as Fitzgerald
- The Beautiful Cheat as Lucius Haven
- Strange Confession as Stevens
- The Royal Mounted Rides Again as Brad Taggart
- The Daltons Ride Again as Parker W. Graham
- The Scarlet Horseman as Narrator
- Little Giant as Prof. Watkins
- Smooth as Silk as John Kimble
- The Spider Woman Strikes Back as Mr. Moore
- Strange Conquest as Bert Morrow
- Her Adventurous Night as Cop #1
- Inside Job as District Attorney Sutton
- Danger Woman as Gerald King
- Little Miss Big as Father Lennergan
- The Michigan Kid as Lanny Slade
- as Raven Club Announcer
- Buck Privates Come Home as Announcer
- Time Out of Mind as Stage Manager
- Killer Dill as Maboose
- Cass Timberlane as Nestor Purdwin
- Heading for Heaven as Elwood Harding
- Killer McCoy as Henchman
- Train to Alcatraz as Bart Kanin
- The Judge as Martin Strang
- The Green Promise as Reverend Jim Benton
- Sky Dragon as Capt. Tim Norton
- Calamity Jane and Sam Bass as Abe Jones
- No Man of Her Own as Plainclothesman
- Snow Dog as Dr. F. J. McKenzie
- The Fireball as Jeff Davis
- Branded as Dawson
- Operation Pacific as Ground Control Officer
- Flying Leathernecks as Fleet CIC Radio Operator
- Roadblock as Ray Evans
- The Racket as Member of Craig's Team
- The Atomic City as Insp. Harold Mann
- The Savage as Cpl. Martin
- The Sun Shines Bright as Horace K. Maydew
- Invaders from Mars as Capt. Roth
- Pickup on South Street as Detective Winoki
- Second Chance as Edward Dawson
- Arrowhead as Sandy MacKinnon
- Siege at Red River as Sgt. Benjamin 'Benjy' Guderman
- Black Tuesday as Father Slocum
- The Long Gray Line as Capt. John Pershing
- White Feather as Commissioner Trenton
- Smoke Signal as Sgt. Miles
- The Private War of Major Benson as Maj. Gen. Wilton J. Ramsey
- Gunsmoke as Doc Adams
- Drango as Col. Bracken