#GUNSMOKE THE SCAVENGERS SERIES#
#GUNSMOKE THE SCAVENGERS TV#

Piney, who knows all too well what itвЂ™s like to suffer at the hands of men like PickensвЂ™ character, sees the damage he has caused. That installment, 'The Scavengers,' sees Kotto play Piney Biggs, a man who accuses a Native American tribe of massacring innocent travelers near Dodge City even though he knows they didn't do it.ДЄ treacherous posse lead by Slim Pickens captures members of the tribe and brings them in to hang. Yaphet Kotto appeared in two more Sixties Westerns, Daniel Boone and Gunsmoke, although his Gunsmoke episode technically first aired in 1970. Kotto expertly plays the man in charge, something proved in his later, more famous role - Lieutenant Al Giardello on Homicide: Life on the Street. The Cannon family are some of the only people that welcome the soldiers from the start and help entrap the outlaws after the skillful maneuvering of the cavalry. The soldiers must contend with not only the prejudice of many citizens but also a group of gunmen hired to do them in. In 'The Buffalo Soldiers,' Kotto plays Sergeant Major Creason (in the image at the top of this page) of the famous 10thВ Cavalry, a fictionalized version of the real African-American military unit formed during the Civil War and the same unit Kotto's character in The Big Valley belonged to.Д¬reason and his men have been ordered to Tucson to stop the criminal enterprise taking over the town. Less accomplished actors might not be able to guest star on a show and carry the entire episode but Yaphet Kotto does it with ease.ДЄnother Western whose regulars take a back seat to give Kotto's guest character and storyline the importance it deserves is The High Chaparral. The episode is more about Child than anyone else, with Hoss serving as a secondary lead and the rest of the Cartwright family barely featured at all. Kotto gives Child an amiable smile that hides a dark past and a willingness to do whatever it takes to survive. A posse form to hunt down Child and Hoss, though the posse is more interested in the dead manвЂ™s money than seeing proper justice served. When Hoss is falsely accused of murder, Child breaks him out of jail and saves him from the wrath of an angry mob. In the Bonanza episode 'Child,' Kotto plays Joshua 'Child' Barnett, a lone rider with a mysterious past. The episode highlights Kotto's ability to imbue a character with both toughness and sincerity.

After the brutal prison guard is shot, Kotto's character, Damien, must decide if he should run or face a parole hearing arranged by Jarrod Barkley. The latter episode followed Kotto as a convict and former cavalryman who goes to work on the Barkley ranch. He had a small part in season two's 'The Iron Box' but played the titular character in 'The Buffalo Man' in season three.

#GUNSMOKE THE SCAVENGERS TV#

Kotto's first TV Western gig came in a 1966 episode of The Big Valley, followed a year later by a guest-star spot.

Kotto gives a nuanced, moving performance - one of many pivotal roles he would play on TV Westerns in the 1960s. The episode told the dramatic tale of a former slave whose devout faith is tested when he gets kidnapped by a ruthless killer.

#GUNSMOKE THE SCAVENGERS SERIES#

Three years later, he played the title character in 'A Man Called Abraham,' an episode of the Western anthology series Death Valley Days. After beginning his career on stage in the late 1950s, Yaphet Kotto got his first screen role as a supporting character in the poignant 1964 film Nothing But a Man.

Gunsmoke the scavengers