Veteran actor Will Hutchins passes away at 94

LOS ANGELES: Veteran actor Will Hutchins has passed away. He was 94. Hutchins, who rose to fame by portraying wholesome sharpshooter and frontier lawyer Tom Brewster on the 1957-61 ABC Western ‘Sugarfoot’, died on Monday of respiratory failure at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, New York.

Remembering her husband, Barbara told The Hollywood Reporter, “He was hysterical, everyone loved him. He had a great sense of humor, and it never gave up on him”.

Hutchins also starred as Woody Banner, who inherits a Manhattan brownstone from his uncle, on the 1966-67 NBC sitcom ‘Hey, Landlord’, created by Garry Marshall and Jerry Belson, fresh off their work on The Dick Van Dyke Show.

Will Hutchins of TV’s Sugarfoot has passed away a couple weeks short of his 95th birthday. https://t.co/mNAIzt4Vj3 pic.twitter.com/7RKSaj6hqo

— Toby Roan (@50swesterns) April 22, 2025

Two years later, the blue-eyed Los Angeles native played Dagwood Bumstead opposite Patricia Harty on the 1968-69 CBS comedy ‘Blondie’. Based on the comic strip and following a set of films and a 1957 NBC series, it lasted just 16 episodes before being canceled.

On the big screen, Hutchins appeared opposite Elvis Presley in two movies: as the gourmet cop Tracy Richards (the name was a Dick Tracy pun) in ‘Spinout’ (1966) and as buddy Tom Wilson in ‘Clambake’ (1967), in which he lip-synced “Who Needs Money?” in a duet with the star.

He married Barbara, his second wife, in April 1988. He had a daughter, Jennifer, with his first wife, Chrissie Burnett, younger half-sister of Carol Burnett; they were married from 1965-69. (ANI)