Will Hutchins, the star of ABC’s Sugarfoot, thought to be a contender for TV’s first comedy western series, died Monday, April 21, at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, New York. He was 94.
His death was announced by Western film and TV historian Boyd Magers.
Running on ABC for 69 episodes from 1957 to 1961, Sugarfoot starred Hutchins as Tom Brewster, an Easterner who comes to the Wild West of the Oklahoma Territory to become a lawyer. His lack of cowboy skills, which the show played for laughs, earned him the nickname Sugarfoot. The show’s lighthearted approach to the TV western genre preceded that of Maverick starring James Garner, which debuted five days after Sugarfoot.
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Born Marshall Lowell Hutchason in Los Angeles on May 5, 1930, Hutchins served in the United States Army Signal Corps during the Korean War, and subsequently enrolled as a graduate student at UCLA to study cinema arts. His acting career began around this time, and he attracted the notice of a Warner Bros. talent scout and was signed to a contract.
From the mid- to late-1950s Hutchins appeared in such TV series as Warner Brothers Presents, Conflict, Matinee Theatre and 77 Sunset Strip. In 1960 he appeared in a crossover episode of Maverick that featured the cowboy stars of various TV westerns. The gimmick was repeated the following year on Cheyenne.
Feature film roles included a part in the 1958 Andy Griffith vehicle No Time For Sergeants and director Samuel Fuller’s 1962 World War II film Merrill’s Marauders.
TV appearances remained steady throughout the 1970s, with credits including Gunsmoke, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Perry Mason and Love, American Style.
More prominently, he starred in Garry Marshall and Jerry Belson’s 1966 one-season sitcom Hey, Landlord in which he played an Ohio rube who inherits a New York City brownstone. The series costarred Sandy Baron with appearances by Sally Field and Rob Reiner. Hutchins returned to sitcoms in the CBS 1968-69 series Blondie, starring as Dagwood Bumstead opposite Patricia Harty in the title role.
Hutchins also has the distinction of appearing in two Elvis Presley movies: Spinout (1966) and Clambake (1967). In the latter, he lip-synced a duet with Presley in the comic number “Who Needs Money?”, all while cruising down a highway in a convertible.
Later credits include The Horror at 37,000 Feet (1973), Slumber Party ’57 (1976), The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington (1977) and Roar (1981).
During the 1980s Hutchins took up clowning, appearing as Patches the Clown in Australia’s Ashton Family Circus.
Survivors include wife Barbara and daughter Jennifer from his first marriage to Chrissie Burnett, half-sister of Carol Burnett.
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