Will Hutchins

Will Hutchins born Marshall Lowell Hutchason is an American actor most noted for playing the lead role of the young lawyer from the Oklahoma Territory Tom Brewster in sixtynine episodes of the Warner Bros Western television series Sugarfoot which aired on ABC from 1957 to 1961 Hutchins was discovered by a talent scout for Warner Bros who changed his name from Marshall Lowell Hutchason to Will Hutchins The young actors easygoing manner was compared to Will Rogers the Oklahoma humorist His contract led him to guest appearances in Warner Bros Television programs such as Conflict Hutchins was also cast as a guest star on Cheyenne Bronco Maverick and 77 Sunset Strip He had small roles in the Warners movies Bombers B52 Lafayette Escadrille and No Time for Sergeants where he screen tested for the lead of Will Stockdale with James Garner playing the psychiatrist Hutchins leapt to national fame in the lead of Sugarfoot During the series run he gueststarred on other Warner Bros shows such as The Roaring 20s Bronco and Surfside 6 Warners tried him in the lead of a feature Young and Eager aka Claudelle Inglish with Diane McBain He tried another pilot for a series Howie that was not picked up and war in the Warners war film with Jeff Chandler Merrills Marauders a picture filmed in the Philippine Islands and Chandlers last acting role Hutchins gueststarred on Gunsmoke and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour While appearing in a play in Chicago in late 1963 he was flown to Los Angeles to shoot a television pilot for MGM 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 costarred as Lt Tracy Richards Dick Tracy backwards alongside Elvis Presley In 1965 Hutchins costarred with Jack Nicholson and Warren Oates in Monte Hellmans The Shooting In 19681969 Hutchins starred as Dagwood Bumstead in a CBS television version of the comic strip Blondie He travelled to South Africa to appear in Shangani Patrol Back in the United States Hutchins gueststarred on Love American Style Emergency Chase Movin On The Streets of San Francisco and The Quest He was in The Horror at 37000 Feet Slumber Party 57 and The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington He also began appearing in circuses as Patches the Clown