Ron Bishop

While he wrote scripts for several television series, Ron Bishop is best remembered as one of the most important writers during the second decade of "Gunsmoke." Series star James Arness has long referred to Bishop as one of the best writers on that series. The characters created by Bishop spoke authentically to the time period portrayed in the series, and he created some of the most memorable villains seen during the twenty year run of the program. Friends and co- workers described him as an outdoors-man who lived by a strong code of conduct, a conduct often reflected in his scripts. Bishop died in 1988 following a stroke.