If you want to see Dennis Weaver create a character, go look at some of his 30 minute Gunsmoke shows as “Chester”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7Gy8AAk980
He lived around the corner from my parents when I was around three years old....Mom referred to him as “that man who wants to be an actor”.
(..and this would have been right around 1949 or ‘50)