Amanda Blake

Born: February 20, 1929 Buffalo, New York
Died: August 16, 1989 (age 60), Sacramento, California

Amanda Blake (Beverly Louise Neill) was an American actress best known for the role of the red-haired saloon proprietress "Miss Kitty" on the long running television drama, CBS's Gunsmoke series (1955-1975).

What do you know about Amanda Blake? Take this quick FUN TV Westerns Hall of Fame Trivia. "Check Your Answers" at the end of the quiz.

1) What is Amanda Blake’s job before becoming an actress?

• Bank Teller
• Store Clerk
• Telephone operator

2) She plays Faith Radmore Samuels in Stars in My Crown (1950). Who is the star of the movie?

• James Arness
• Glenn Ford
• Joel McCrea

3. Amanda Blake plays Linda Kinston in Dutchess of Idaho (1950). Who plays Christine ‘Chris’ Riverton Duncan?

• Esther Williams
• Paula Raymond
• Eleanor Powell

4. Following the Civil War, the state of Texas, needing money, sells land to a syndicate of northerners headed by Judd Hastings. When Hastings demands the land, and the squatters refuses to vacate, the governor sends Mike McGann to settle the issues. Eventually, McGann gets the ranchers to move on to other areas with their cattle, which Hastings also covets. McGann also falls in love with Hastings' daughter, Marian. The daughter is played by Blake. Who plays Mike McGann?

• Dennis Morgan
• Philip Carey
• Sheb Wooley

5. Amanda Blake plays Susan Ettinger in A Star is Born (1954).

• True or False?

From 1955 to 1974, how many episodes does Amanda Blake appear as Kitty Russell in Gunsmoke?

• 367 episodes
• 405 episodes
• 616 episodes

6. The actress originally offered the part of Miss Kitty, Polly Bond (aka Polly Ellis), turns it down due to her recent (at the time) marriage to actor Tommy Bond in 1953.

• True or False?

7. In a first season episode, Jerry Shand (Val Dufour) finds himself facing a hangman's noose after killing jovial hardware drummer Andy Culley (Maurice Manson), but Matt learns that Culley was a former Quantrill raider and senses that reticent Long Branch hostess Belle Archer (Marion Brash) is the key to proving Jerry's claim of self-defense. Who runs the Long Branch?

• Glenn Strange
• Amanda Blake
• Dennis Weaver

9. Blake is inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. What is the year?

• 1968
• 1972
• 2007

10. In 1971 she joins with others in Phoenix, Arizona to form the Arizona Animal Welfare League. The AAWL is now the oldest and largest "no-kill" animal shelter in Arizona.

• True of False?

Where is Amanda Blake buried?