SPOKANE, WASH. -- Albert Salmi, 62, 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 slaying-suicide, police here said.
According to police, officers were summoned by a family friend Monday night who peered through a window and saw part of Mrs. Salmi's body. Police forced their way into the home and found her dead on the kitchen floor and Mr. Salmi's body in an upstairs den, police said.
Investigators said they found two guns they believe were used late Saturday night or early Sunday. They added that they believed the couple had been separated and that Mrs. Salmi had been living in the house alone.
Mr. 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 won him several major awards and led to his being offered the part of Bo in the film version. Mr. 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.
Mr. Salmi, a New Yorker born in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn, received one award he is said to have cherished above all others, the Western Heritage Award of the National Cowboy Hall of Fame for his portrayal of a cowpoke on television's "Gunsmoke."
He had sought out Western character roles and played them with gusto. He appeared on such television programs as "General Electric Theatre," "Wagon Train," "Man Called Shenandoah," "Bonanza," "The Virginian," and "Have Gun Will Travel."
He moved to Spokane in the 1980s.
