Marshall Lowell Hutchason (May 5, 1930 – April 21, 2025), known professionally as Will Hutchins, was an American actor most noted for playing the lead role of the young lawyer Tom Brewster, in the Western television series Sugarfoot, which aired on ABC from 1957 to 1961 for 69 episodes.
Early life
Hutchins was born in the Atwater Village neighborhood of Los Angeles. As a child, he visited the location filming of
Never Give a Sucker an Even Break and made his first appearance as an
film extra in a crowd.
He attended Pomona College in Claremont, California, where he majored in Greek drama. He also studied at the University of California at Los Angeles, where he enrolled in cinema classes.
During the Korean War, he served for two years in the United States Army Signal Corps as a cryptographer in Paris, serving as a Corporal with SHAPE.[p. 222 Aaker, Everett Television Western Players, 1960-1975: A Biographical Dictionary McFarland, 16 May 2017] Following his enlistment he enrolled as a graduate student at UCLA in their Cinema Arts department on the G. I. Bill.
Career
Warner Bros.
Hutchins was discovered by a talent scout for Warner Bros., who changed his name from Marshall Lowell Hutchason to Will Hutchins. The young actor's 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, in which he appeared in three hour-long episodes, including his screen debut as Ed Masters in "The Magic Brew" on October 16, 1956.
Hutchins was also cast as a guest star on Cheyenne, Bronco, Maverick and 77 Sunset Strip.
Sugarfoot
Hutchins leapt to national fame in the lead of
Sugarfoot, a drama with intermittent comedic overtones in which he played a frontier lawyer.
During the series' run he guest-starred on other Warner Bros shows such as The Roaring 20's, Bronco, and Surfside 6. He was the lead guest star in an episode of Maverick entitled "Bolt from the Blue" written and directed by Robert Altman and starring Roger Moore as Beau Maverick. He appeared in supporting roles in the Warner Bros films Claudelle Inglish (1961) and the World War II action picture Merrill's Marauders (1962), which starred Jeff Chandler.
Post-Warners
Hutchins guest-starred 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, Bert I. Gordon's
Take Me to Your Leader, in which Hutchins played a
Mars salesman who came to Earth. Though the pilot was not picked up, it led MGM to sign him for
Spinout, in which he co-starred as Lt. Tracy Richards ("Dick Tracy" transposed) alongside
Elvis Presley. Also in 1963, he appeared on an episode of Gunsmoke. In S8/Ep24, "Blind Man's Bluff", his character was Billy Poe. In 1965, Hutchins co-starred with
Jack Nicholson and
Warren Oates in
Monte Hellman's
The Shooting. In 1966, he made a guest appearance on the
CBS courtroom drama series
Perry Mason as Don Hobart in "The Case of the Scarlet Scandal".
Other TV series
In 1966–1967, he co-starred with
Sandy Baron in
Hey, Landlord, set in a New York City
apartment building.
[Terrace, Vincent (2011). Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010. McFarland & Company, Inc. ] The program followed
Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, but it failed to attract a sustaining audience against CBS's
The Ed Sullivan Show and ABC's
The F.B.I. with Efrem Zimbalist Jr., his former Warner Brothers colleague.
Hutchins was reunited with Presley in
Clambake (1967). In 1968–69, he starred as
Dagwood Bumstead in a CBS television version of the comic strip
Blondie.
1970s
He travelled to Rhodesia to appear in
Shangani Patrol (1970) playing Frederick Russell Burnham. Back in the United States, Hutchins guest-starred on
Love, American Style;
Emergency!;
Chase;
Movin' On;
The Streets of San Francisco; and
The Quest. He was in
The Horror at 37,000 Feet (1973),
Slumber Party '57 (1976), and
The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington (1977). He began appearing in circuses as Patches the Clown.
Later career
Hutchins had roles in
Roar (1981),
Gunfighter (1999) and
The Romantics (2010).
Personal life and death
Hutchins was married from 1965 to 1969 to Chris Burnett, sister of
Carol Burnett, with whom he had a daughter. He married his second wife, Barbara Torres, in 1988.
[ ]
Hutchins died of respiratory failure at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, New York, on April 21, 2025, at the age of 94.[
]
Major appearances
Filmography
-
Bombers B-52 (1957) – Roberts – B-52 Navigator (uncredited)
-
Lafayette Escadrille (1958) – Dave Putnam
-
No Time for Sergeants (1958) – Lieutenant George Bridges
-
Cheyenne (1961) (Episode "Duel at Judas Basin") – Tom 'Sugarfoot' Brewster
-
Claudelle Inglish (1961) – Dennis Peasley
-
Gunsmoke (1962) (Season 8 Episode 24: "Blind Man's Bluff) - Billy Poe
-
Merrill's Marauders (1962) – Chowhound
-
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1963) (Season 1 Episode 24: "The Star Juror") - J.J. Fenton
-
The Shooting (1966) – Coley
-
Spinout (1966) – Lieutenant Tracy Richards
-
Clambake (1967) – Tom Wilson / 'Scott Heyward'
-
Shangani Patrol (1970) – Frederick Russell Burnham
-
The Horror at 37,000 Feet (1973, TV Movie) – Steve Holcomb
-
Magnum Force (1973) – Stakeout Cop (uncredited)
-
Slumber Party '57 (1976) – Harold Perkins
-
The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington (1977) – Randall Petersdorf
-
Roar (1981) – Committee Member
-
Maverick (1994; scenes cut) – Spectator (uncredited)
-
Gunfighter (1999) – The Judge
-
The Romantics (2010) – Grandpa McDevon
External links
