Matt Dillon (Gunsmoke) 1840) trying to take a bath in a wooden washtub without fully undressing left his soul a little warped. Anyway, there'd have to be something wrong with him or he wouldn't have hired on as a United States Marshal in the heyday of Dodge City, Kansas." Notwithstanding Meston's original vision, the character evolved considerably during "Gunsmoke"s nine-year run on CBS Radio and its 20-year run on CBS Television (Columbia Broadcasting System). On the radio series which ran from 1952 until 1961, Matt was portrayed by William Conrad, whose deep and resonant voice helped to project a larger than life presence.
Matt Dillon (Gunsmoke) events through the use of dialog. Arness's Matt thus naturally evolved into a "strong, silent" type of character who tended to act rather than talk at length about possible courses of action. Perhaps the best measure of Matt Dillon's endurance and physical prowess is how he survived the dozens of gunshot wounds and other assaults on his person during the 20-year run of the television series. In 2013, Marshall Trimble, the board president of the Arizona Historical Society and vice president of the Wild West History Association, documented all of Dillon's wounds from gunfire as well as his other brushes