R.I.P.: Will Hutchins, Star of TV Western 'Sugarfoot'

Will Hutchins (1931-2025)

Will Hutchins, born Marshall Lowell Hutchason on May 5, 1930, in Los Angeles, California, passed away on April 21, 2025, at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, New York, at the age of 94.

The cause of death was respiratory failure, as confirmed by his wife, Barbara Hutchins.

Hutchins was best known for his starring role as Tom Brewster in the ABC Western series Sugarfoot, which aired from 1957 to 1961 for 69 episodes. The show, considered one of the first comedy Westerns, featured Hutchins as a gentle, Eastern-educated lawyer navigating the Oklahoma Territory. His character, nicknamed "Sugarfoot"—a term for someone even less seasoned than a tenderfoot—preferred sarsaparilla with a dash of cherry over whiskey and often resolved conflicts with wit rather than violence.

Hutchins brought a lighthearted charm to the role, accentuated by his dyed blond hair and boyish good looks, making Sugarfoot a hit during the 1950s Western craze, when eight of the top 10 TV shows in 1958-59 were Westerns. He also played Brewster’s outlaw cousin, The Canary Kid, in three episodes, relishing the chance to portray a whiskey-drinking villain while wearing Humphrey Bogart’s pants from the Warner Bros. wardrobe.

In Later Years

Born in Atwater Village, Los Angeles, Hutchins had an early brush with show business as a child, appearing as an extra in a crowd scene in W.C. Fields’ Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941). After attending John Marshall High School and Pomona College, where he majored in Greek drama, he served two years as a cryptographer in the U.S. Army Signal Corps during the Korean War. He later studied cinema at UCLA on the G.I. Bill, where a Warner Bros. talent scout discovered him, leading to his casting in Sugarfoot despite minimal acting experience.

Beyond Sugarfoot, Hutchins appeared in films like Merrill’s Marauders (1962), The Shooting (1965) with Jack Nicholson, and two Elvis Presley movies, Spinout (1966) and Clambake (1967), where he lip-synced a duet, “Who Needs Money?”, with Presley. On television, he starred as Woody Banner in the 1966-67 NBC sitcom Hey, Landlord and as Dagwood Bumstead in the 1968-69 CBS comedy Blondie, though both were short-lived. He also guest-starred on shows like Gunsmoke, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, and Perry Mason.

As his Hollywood career waned, Hutchins pivoted to unique ventures. In the 1980s, he performed as Patches the Clown with Australia’s Ashton Family Circus and worked as a ringmaster. After settling in Glen Head, New York, in 1996, he hosted an internet radio show, Will Hutchins’ Golden Melody Saloon, playing 1930s and 1940s music, and wrote for Western Clippings. He received a Golden Boot Award in 2002 for his Western contributions and a Stone-Waterman Award in 2004 for old-time radio work.