Robert Totten
Encyclopedia
Robert C. Totten was an American
television
director, writer, and actor
, best known for his work on the CBS
series Gunsmoke
. He directed twenty-seven Gunsmoke episodes between 1966 and 1971 and guest starred in eight episodes between 1967 and 1973. He also directed eight episodes of NBC
's Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color between 1969 and 1975.
Totten's first directing occurred with the 1962 episode "Advance and Be Recognized" of ABC
's World War II
series The Gallant Men
. He then directed the 1963 war picture The Quick and the Dead
. That same year, he directed four episodes each of NBC's Temple Houston
(1963), starring Jeffrey Hunter
in the role of the youngest son, Temple Houston
, of the Texan
Sam Houston
. Also directing episodes of Temple Houston was another Gunsmoke director, Irving J. Moore
.
Totten directed four segments of ABC's The Legend of Jesse James
(1965–1966), starring Christopher Jones
in the title role of Jesse James
. In 1971, he directed two episodes of the short-lived CBS series Bearcats!, starring Rod Taylor
and Dennis Cole
. In 1973, he directed two episodes of David Carradine
's ABC series Kung Fu
. His last directing work was in 1990 in a segment of "The Man Behind the Badge" of ABC's The Young Riders
, loosely based on the Pony Express
.
As an actor, Totten first appeared uncredited on screen as a young miner in the 1958 film The Badlanders. In 1961, he had the uncredited role of Joe in the film Susan Slade
, starring Troy Donahue
and Connie Stevens
. He appeared later on television in an episode of the short-lived 1974 CBS series, Dirty Sally
, the only Gunsmoke spin-off
, with Jeanette Nolan
, and in the 1980s on Simon and Simon and Airwolf
. He had a small role in the 1979 film, The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again
.
Totten wrote the 1968 Gunsmoke episode "Nowhere to Run" and the 1973 television movie
The Red Pony
, starring Henry Fonda
and Maureen O'Hara
.
In the February 15, 1971 Gunsmoke episode entitled "Cleavus," Totten plays the title guest-starring role, a red-bearded man who finds a gold mine after he accidentally kills the owner. He grabs $200 worth of gold dust from the mine owner's pocket. In Dodge City
, Kansas
, Cleavus learns that the owner's claim was not yet registered. He seeks the title for himself. and tries to act like a gentleman, buys nice clothing and even seeks to court Miss Kitty Russell
. Festus Haggen
, a friend of Cleavus, and Kitty determine that the mine is mostly iron pyrite. While rescuing Festus from a fall in the mine, Cleavus accidentally shoots himself to death. The episode was directed by Vincent McEveety
.
Totten was born in Los Angeles
, California
. He died of a heart attack
shortly before his 58th birthday in Sherman Oaks, California. A daughter, Heather Totten (born 1959), acted on television in the 1970s, including a role in The Red Pony.
At the time of his death, Totten was preparing to direct the syndicated
television series based on Larry McMurtry
's Lonesome Dove
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
director, writer, and actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, best known for his work on the CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
series Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West....
. He directed twenty-seven Gunsmoke episodes between 1966 and 1971 and guest starred in eight episodes between 1967 and 1973. He also directed eight episodes of NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color between 1969 and 1975.
Totten's first directing occurred with the 1962 episode "Advance and Be Recognized" of ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
series The Gallant Men
The Gallant Men
The Gallant Men is a 1962-1963 ABC television series which depicted an infantry company of American soldiers fighting their way through Italy in World War II.-Description:...
. He then directed the 1963 war picture The Quick and the Dead
The Quick and the Dead
The Quick and the Dead is a 1995 western film directed by Sam Raimi and starring Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio. The story focuses on "The Lady" , a gunfighter who rides into the 1878 Wild West town of Redemption, controlled by the ruthless John Herod...
. That same year, he directed four episodes each of NBC's Temple Houston
Temple Houston (TV series)
Temple Houston is a 1963–64 NBC television series which has been called "the first attempt . . . to produce an hour-long Western series with the main character being an attorney in the formal sense." It was the only show Jack Webb sold to a network during his ten months as the head of production at...
(1963), starring Jeffrey Hunter
Jeffrey Hunter
Jeffrey Hunter was an American film and television actor. His most famous roles are as Jesus in the film King of Kings, as Martin Pawley in The Searchers, and as Capt...
in the role of the youngest son, Temple Houston
Temple Houston
Temple Lea Houston was the last-born child of Texas Revolutionary Sam Houston.After traveling and working in the East, Houston returned to Texas in 1877, and graduated from Baylor University with honors in 1880....
, of the Texan
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
Sam Houston
Sam Houston
Samuel Houston, known as Sam Houston , was a 19th-century American statesman, politician, and soldier. He was born in Timber Ridge in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, of Scots-Irish descent. Houston became a key figure in the history of Texas and was elected as the first and third President of...
. Also directing episodes of Temple Houston was another Gunsmoke director, Irving J. Moore
Irving J. Moore
Irving Joseph Moore was an American television director originally from Chicago, Illinois. He was known primarily for work in two night-time soap operas, Dallas and Dynasty as well as segments of such other series as Gunsmoke and Eight Is Enough.Moore launched his Hollywood career as a messenger...
.
Totten directed four segments of ABC's The Legend of Jesse James
The Legend of Jesse James (TV series)
The Legend of Jesse James is a 34-episode western television series starring Christopher Jones in the tile role of notorious outlaw Jesse James which aired on ABC from September 13, 1965, to May 9, 1966...
(1965–1966), starring Christopher Jones
Christopher Jones (actor)
William "Billy" Frank Jones, better known as Christopher Jones, is an American character actor, born August 18, 1941 in Jackson, Tennessee....
in the title role of Jesse James
Jesse James
Jesse Woodson James was an American outlaw, gang leader, bank robber, train robber, and murderer from the state of Missouri and the most famous member of the James-Younger Gang. He also faked his own death and was known as J.M James. Already a celebrity when he was alive, he became a legendary...
. In 1971, he directed two episodes of the short-lived CBS series Bearcats!, starring Rod Taylor
Rod Taylor (actor)
Rodney Sturt "Rod" Taylor is an Australian-American actor of film and television.-Early life:Born on 11 January 1930 in Lidcombe, a suburb of Sydney, Taylor was the only child of William Sturt Taylor, a steel construction contractor and commercial artist, and the former Mona Thompson, a writer of...
and Dennis Cole
Dennis Cole
Dennis Cole was an American film and television actor.Before breaking into acting, Cole was a model for men's physique magazines. His first big acting break came when he landed a starring role in the ABC police drama Felony Squad, which ran from 1966 to 1969...
. In 1973, he directed two episodes of David Carradine
David Carradine
David Carradine was an American actor and martial artist, best known for his role as a warrior monk, Kwai Chang Caine, in the 1970s television series, Kung Fu, which later had a 1990s sequel series, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues...
's ABC series Kung Fu
Kung Fu (TV series)
Kung Fu is an American television series that starred David Carradine. It was created by Ed Spielman, directed and produced by Jerry Thorpe, and developed by Herman Miller, who was also a writer for, and co-producer of, the series...
. His last directing work was in 1990 in a segment of "The Man Behind the Badge" of ABC's The Young Riders
The Young Riders
The Young Riders is an American Western television series created by Ed Spielman that presents a fictionalized account of a group of young Pony Express riders based at the Sweetwater Station in the Nebraska Territory during the years leading up to the American Civil War...
, loosely based on the Pony Express
Pony Express
The Pony Express was a fast mail service crossing the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains, and the High Sierra from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, from April 3, 1860 to October 1861...
.
As an actor, Totten first appeared uncredited on screen as a young miner in the 1958 film The Badlanders. In 1961, he had the uncredited role of Joe in the film Susan Slade
Susan Slade
Susan Slade is a 1961 American drama film released by Warner Bros. The film was directed by Delmer Daves and stars Troy Donahue, Connie Stevens, Dorothy McGuire, Lloyd Nolan, Bert Convy and Grant Williams...
, starring Troy Donahue
Troy Donahue
Troy Donahue was an American actor, who was active between the late 1950s and late 1990s.-Life and career:...
and Connie Stevens
Connie Stevens
Connie Stevens is an American actress and singer, best known for her roles in the television series Hawaiian Eye and other TV and film work.-Early life:...
. He appeared later on television in an episode of the short-lived 1974 CBS series, Dirty Sally
Dirty Sally
Dirty Sally is a short-lived comedy-drama Western series which ran on CBS from January 11 until April 5, 1974. The program was a spin-off of a two-part 1971 episode of Gunsmoke in which Sally nursed a young gunfighter back to health.-Synopsis:...
, the only Gunsmoke spin-off
Spin-off (media)
In media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...
, with Jeanette Nolan
Jeanette Nolan
Jeanette Nolan was an American radio, film and television actress. Nolan was nominated for four Emmy Awards.-Early life:...
, and in the 1980s on Simon and Simon and Airwolf
Airwolf
Airwolf is an American television series that ran from 1984 until 1987. The program centers on a high-tech military helicopter, code named Airwolf, and its crew as they undertake various missions, many involving espionage, with a Cold War theme....
. He had a small role in the 1979 film, The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again
The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again
The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again is a 1979 sequel to the 1975 family film The Apple Dumpling Gang starring the comedy duo of Tim Conway, and Don Knotts. Conway and Knotts reprise their roles as Amos and Theodore. The film also stars Tim Matheson, Harry Morgan, and Kenneth Mars. Laugh-In star...
.
Totten wrote the 1968 Gunsmoke episode "Nowhere to Run" and the 1973 television movie
Television movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
The Red Pony
The Red Pony
The Red Pony is an episodic novella written by American writer John Steinbeck in 1933. The first three chapters were published in magazines from 1933–1936, and the full book was published in 1937 by Covici Friede. The stories in the book are tales of a boy named Jody Tiflin. The book has four...
, starring Henry Fonda
Henry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
and Maureen O'Hara
Maureen O'Hara
Maureen O'Hara is an Irish film actress and singer. The famously red-headed O'Hara has been noted for playing fiercely passionate heroines with a highly sensible attitude. She often worked with director John Ford and longtime friend John Wayne...
.
In the February 15, 1971 Gunsmoke episode entitled "Cleavus," Totten plays the title guest-starring role, a red-bearded man who finds a gold mine after he accidentally kills the owner. He grabs $200 worth of gold dust from the mine owner's pocket. In Dodge City
Dodge City, Kansas
Dodge City is a city in, and the county seat of, Ford County, Kansas, United States. Named after nearby Fort Dodge, the city is famous in American culture for its history as a wild frontier town of the Old West. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,340.-History:The first settlement of...
, Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
, Cleavus learns that the owner's claim was not yet registered. He seeks the title for himself. and tries to act like a gentleman, buys nice clothing and even seeks to court Miss Kitty Russell
Miss Kitty
Miss Kitty may refer to:* Kali Troy, an American voice actor known as "Miss Kittie"* Miss Kittin, a musical performer* Stacy Carter, a former professional wrestler with the ring name Miss Kitty...
. Festus Haggen
Festus Haggen
Festus Haggen was Marshal Matt Dillon's only official deputy on the CBS television series Gunsmoke. He came to Dodge City in an episode titled "Us Haggens" to avenge the death of his twin brother, Fergus. Played by Ken Curtis, he first appeared in 1962 and was showcased full-time from 1964 until 1975...
, a friend of Cleavus, and Kitty determine that the mine is mostly iron pyrite. While rescuing Festus from a fall in the mine, Cleavus accidentally shoots himself to death. The episode was directed by Vincent McEveety
Vincent McEveety
Vincent Michael McEveety is an American director and producer.- Career :TelevisionVince McEveety has directed numerous Emmy Award winning television series, including The Untouchables, Gunsmoke, six Star Trek , Magnum, P.I., How the...
.
Totten was born in Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. He died of a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
shortly before his 58th birthday in Sherman Oaks, California. A daughter, Heather Totten (born 1959), acted on television in the 1970s, including a role in The Red Pony.
At the time of his death, Totten was preparing to direct the syndicated
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
television series based on Larry McMurtry
Larry McMurtry
Larry Jeff McMurtry is an American novelist, essayist, bookseller and screenwriter whose work is predominantly set in either the old West or in contemporary Texas...
's Lonesome Dove
Lonesome Dove
Lonesome Dove is a 1985 Pulitzer Prize–winning western novel written by Larry McMurtry. It is the first published book of the Lonesome Dove series, but the third installment in the series chronologically...
.