James Aurness (he later changed his last name to Arness) was born on May 26, 1923, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was inducted into the U.S. Army at Fort Snelling, Minnesota, on March 20, 1943, and he attended basic training and infantry replacement training at Camp Wheeler, Georgia, from April to September 1943. After transferring to troop staging areas at Camp Meade, Maryland, and Camp Patrick Henry, Virginia, Pvt Aurness left the United States for North Africa in October 1943. He was assigned to Company E, 7th Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Infantry Division in Italy from November 1943 until he was wounded in action during the Battle of Anzio on January 31, 1944. He was hospitalized in Italy from January to May 1944, at Schick General Hospital in Clinton, Iowa, from May to November 1944, and then at the Convalescent Hospital at Camp Carson, Colorado, from November 1944 until he was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army on January 29, 1945. After leaving active duty, Aurness worked as a radio announcer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, for a short time before moving to Hollywood, California, to work as an actor with the name James Arness from 1947 to 1994. He is most famous for playing Marshal Matt Dillon in the television series Gunsmoke from 1955 to 1975, and he also starred in 33 films and many other television series before retiring in 1994. James Arness died on June 3, 2011, and was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.