MO Sports Legends: Dennis Weaver and Brad Pitt
(OK, kinda Sports heros)
If you are older you will likely remember Chester on Gunsmoke and later he became Marshall McCloud, etc. That was Missourian William Dennis Weaver.
As a young man, he was a very accomplished track athlete, but on Gunsmoke he acted like he had a limp. The story goes Gunsmoke’s Marshall Dillon (James Arness) had a real limp but when the cameras were on he forced himself to walk ‘normally’. Chester who had no limp forced himself to have one.
Weaver, from Joplin, was born in 1924. While in drama classes at JHS, he also set records in track. He went to OU and set more track records and nearly made the 1948 Olympics. He went from track to acting to President of the Screen Actors Guild to having his Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. After years of using his celebrity to promote many environmental issues, he died in 2006, from prostate cancer.
Maybe you have heard of Brad Pitt (William Bradley Pitt).
Many of you know he is from Springfield. Born in OK in 1963, but grew up in Springfield going to Kickapoo HS. Most resources say while he was a drama student, he was also very accomplished at golf, swimming, tennis and basketball. He went
