10 TV Lines Actors Refused To Say

And finally, in the case of Gunsmoke star James Arness - who played protagonist Marshal Matt Dillon - he didn't reject a specific line for moral or creative reasons, but a whole host of them because he felt that less would be more.

In a 1973 interview, Arness confessed that he intentionally had Dillon's lines trimmed down because he didn't want the audience growing tired of his presence on-screen, preferring instead to speak less and have some of his dialogue handed off to the wider ensemble cast. He said:

"With too much dialogue an actor can talk himself right off the air. People get tired of looking at him and listening to him. I try to do a heavy show four or five times a year. By that, I mean I will play a major figure in the story. The rest of the time, I don’t press it too much. I let the others take over."

Arness further reasoned that this approach would "give viewers a rest" and avoid Dillon being overexposed, and given that Arness played the part for all of Gunsmoke's 20 seasons, his gambit evidently worked.