Matt Dillon (Gunsmoke) no uncertain terms that he had no interest whatsoever. (Wayne was arguably the cinema's foremost box office attraction at the time.) Warren stated that the inquiry had not been serious inasmuch as Wayne could not realistically have been expected to abandon a thriving movie career for a less certain and immensely less lucrative television role. Wayne did, however, recommend James Arness for the part and his offer to introduce the first episode was readily accepted by CBS. Others who had auditioned for the part included Raymond Burr, Richard Boone, Denver Pyle, and William Conrad. All would go on to other
Matt Dillon are stored at UCLA, where a legal dispute makes it unavailable to the public. One of his next roles was in "Liar's Moon", where he played Jack Duncan, a poor Texas boy madly in love with a rich banker's daughter. In the early 1980s, Dillon also had prominent roles in three adaptations of S. E. Hinton novels: "Tex" (1982), "The Outsiders" (1983) and "Rumble Fish" (1983). All three films were shot in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Hinton's hometown. "The Outsiders" and "Rumble Fish" had Dillon working with Francis Ford Coppola and Diane Lane. He followed those up with "The Flamingo Kid" in