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Chester's limp drew hundreds of letters from concerned Gunsmoke fans
Dennis Weaver was flattered so many fans thought the fake limp was real.
In the third season of Gunsmoke, there's a worrisome episode titled "Never Pester Chester" in which Chester Goode gets dragged by two men to the point of near death.
For Gunsmoke fans, Chester has always been a sympathetic character, primarily because his character walks with a limp caused by a stiff right leg.
Actor Dennis Weaver famously added the limp as a character trait before he even auditioned. After landing the role, he had to train himself to convincingly walk, climb stairs, ride horses, and do everything else with the limp.
Weaver told the Los Angeles Evening Citizen News in 1957 that he chose to limp with his right leg because his left leg was stronger.
As a teenager, Weaver had set records in football and track and field, and his left leg was the one he used to jump off with. He knew that if he was going to be able to mount a horse, he would need that left leg to propel him up to the saddle.
Mounting and riding horses became Weaver's biggest challenge while training to play Chester.
"You have to grip with one leg. And that's hard to do with a single leg unless you are really in good shape," Weaver said.
Fortunately, Weaver was in great shape, and he pulled off the limp so well that hundreds of fans wrote letters asking if it was real.
Many fans had the same question: Did the actor have a limp like his character? If so, how did he get it? While that may not have been exactly what Weaver wanted to be known for, he was happy to set the record straight.
Weaver gave this answer:
"No, I'm not really lame. His stiff leg is just a character touch, thank goodness. However, I still get hundreds of letters asking if the limp is real. This is rather flattering to me as an actor."
Sometimes, though, Weaver said fans wrote letters in which they assumed the limp had to be real.
"Some people don’t even ask; they just assume I have a bad leg," Weaver said. "One nice lady wrote and told me she thought it was wonderful that CBS had given a disabled veteran a chance."
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