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 Award for Best Spoken Word Album for narrating Jack Kerouac's "On the Road". In 2015, he has starred in the first season of the FOX television series "Wayward Pines", for which he was nominated for a Saturn Award. Dillon was born in New Rochelle, New York, to Mary Ellen, a homemaker, and Paul Dillon, a portrait painter and sales manager for Union Camp, a toy bear manufacturer. His paternal grandmother was the sister of comic strip artist Alex Raymond, the creator of "Flash Gordon". Dillon is the second of six children with one sister and four brothers, one of whom