HAPPY TRAILS

enjoyed a fervent fan following during the 1950s and ’60s while playing Gerald Lloyd “Kookie” Kookson III, a hipster parking lot attendant who graduated to full partner in a private eye firm, in the TV series . During a break from the weekly drama, he costarred opposite two other stars of popular Warner Bros. and John Russell of , in the 1959 big-screen western . He also earned his spurs as a guest star on such prime-time sagebrush sagas as , , , , and the 1969 TV movie . Last year, director Quentin Tarantino cited Byrnes as one of the actors whose lives and careers inspired the Rick Dalton character portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio in Tarantino’s . Much like the fictional Rick Dalton, Byrnes attempted to jump-start his stalled career years after the cancellation of his television series by starring in three ’60s spaghetti westerns filmed back-to-back in Italy and Spain: (aka ), with Guy Madison; , with George Hilton and Gilbert Roland; and , also with George Hilton. In 1978, he earned respectful notices for playing a Dick Clark-styled TV host in the movie musical . Byrnes died January 8 at age 87 in Santa Monica, California.