Will Hutchins

This poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libelous. Find sources: "Will Hutchins" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this template message )

Will Hutchins
Hutchins in 1971
Born	Marshall Lowell Hutchason (1930-05-05) May 5, 1930 (age 93) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Alma mater	Pomona College
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1941, 1956–2010
Spouses	Chrissie Burnett ​ ​ (m. 1965; div. 1969)​ Barbara Torres ​ (m. 1988)​
Awards	Golden Boot Awards (2002)[1] Stone-Waterman Award (2004) – Cincinnati Old Time Radio Convention

Will Hutchins (born Marshall Lowell Hutchason; May 5, 1930) is an American actor most noted for playing the lead role of the young lawyer Tom Brewster, in the Western television series Sugarfoot, which aired on ABC from 1957 to 1961 for 69 episodes.

Early life

Hutchins was born in the

Hutchins was discovered by a talent scout for Warner Bros., who changed his name from Marshall Lowell Hutchason to Will Hutchins. The young actor's easygoing manner was compared to Will Rogers, the Oklahoma humorist.^[5]

His contract led him to guest appearances in

Hutchins leapt to national fame in the lead of Sugarfoot, in which he played a frontier lawyer with intermittent comedic overtones. During the series' run he guest-starred on other Warner Bros shows such as The Roaring 20's, Bronco, and Surfside 6. He was the lead guest star in an episode of Maverick entitled "Bolt from the Blue" written and directed by Robert Altman and starring Roger Moore as Beau Maverick.

Warners tried him in the lead of a feature,

While appearing in a play in Chicago in late 1963, he was flown to Los Angeles to shoot a television pilot for MGM, Bert I. Gordon's Take Me to Your Leader, in which Hutchins played a Martian salesman who came to Earth. Though the pilot was not picked up, it led MGM to sign him for Spinout, in which he co-starred as Lt. Tracy Richards ("Dick Tracy" transposed) alongside Elvis Presley.

Also in 1963, he appeared on an episode of Gunsmoke. In S8/Ep24, "Blind Man's Bluff", his character was Billy Poe.

In 1965, Hutchins co-starred with Jack Nicholson and Warren Oates in Monte Hellman's The Shooting.

In 1966, he made a guest appearance on the

Other TV series

In 1966–1967, he co-starred with

Hutchins was reunited with Presley in Clambake (1967).

In 1968–1969, Hutchins starred as Dagwood Bumstead in a CBS television version of the comic strip Blondie.^[8]

1970s

He travelled to Rhodesia to appear in Shangani Patrol (1970) playing Frederick Russell Burnham.

Back in the United States, Hutchins guest-starred on Love, American Style, Emergency!, Chase, Movin' On, The Streets of San Francisco, and The Quest. He was in The Horror at 37,000 Feet (1973), Slumber Party '57 (1976), and The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington (1977).

He also began appearing in circuses as Patches the Clown.^[10]

Later career

Hutchins had roles in

Hutchins was married to Chris Burnett, sister of Carol Burnett, with whom he had a daughter.^[11]

Major appearances

• 1965, The Shooting (film); Monte Hellman's low-budget Western with Jack Nicholson and Warren Oates.
• 1966, Spinout (film); Hutchins co-starred as Lt. Tracy Richards with Elvis Presley.
• 1967, Clambake (film); Hutchins co-stars with Elvis Presley, Shelley Fabares, and Bill Bixby.
• 1970, Shangani Patrol (film); co-starred as real-life American scout Frederick Burnham in a film based on the actual events of the Shangani Patrol, shot on location in Rhodesia.
• 1976, The Quest, a short-lived NBC western series, starring Kurt Russell and Tim Matheson.
• 1998, Gunfighter (film); a modern Western directed by Christopher Coppola.

Filmography

References