Bonanza’s Bing Russell

Character actor Bing Russell is best known for the recurring role as a deputy on the long-running TV series Bonanza.  He appeared in a number of Westerns, both on the small and big screens, over his 40 year career.

He can be seen (though wasn’t credited) as a Fort Griffin bartender in the classic 1957 Gunfight at the OK Corral, and on three other occasions he was in Tombstone-related TV shows.  And there’s an irony there—for his son Kurt Russell would have his own turn at the gunfight when he starred as Wyatt Earp in 1993’s Tombstone.