
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 25, 1990                   TAG: 9004250596
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SPOKANE, WASH.                                LENGTH: Short

COWBOY ACTOR ALBERT SALMI AND WIFE FOUND DEAD

Albert Salmi, who made a career out of portraying cowboys in television Westerns such as "Gunsmoke," and his wife were found shot to death in an apparent murder-suicide, police said today.

Salmi, 62, apparently shot his 55-year-old wife, Roberta Salmi, and then killed himself, police spokesman Lt. Robert Van Leuven said.

A friend who had gone to check on Salmi's wife Monday night peered through a window and saw her legs, Lt. Jim Hill said.

Salmi had roles in several Broadway plays, at least 20 feature films and more than 150 television dramas.

His portrayal of Bo Decker, the Montana Romeo, in the 1955 Broadway production of "Bus Stop" helped launch his professional acting career. It earned him several major awards and led to his being offered the part of Bo in the film version. Salmi turned it down because - like most of his friends in Lee Strasberg's Actors' Studio - he thought Hollywood actors were turncoats who sold out for fast money.

A New Yorker born in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn, Salmi cherished most the Western Heritage Award from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame for his portrayal of a cowpoke on television's "Gunsmoke."

Salmi sought out Western character roles and played them with gusto. He appeared on TV shows such as "General Electric Theatre," "Wagon Train," "Man Called Shenandoah," "Bonanza," "The Virginian," and "Have Gun Will Travel."

by CNB