Dale Robertson, actor, was born in Oklahoma, and was a cowboy. After his service during World War II (where he got the Purple Heart for being wounded on two separate occasions), he went to Hollywood and became an actor.
The two men, the cowboy and the son of a cowboy, crossed paths when Heath illustrated a Dell Four Color series comic book of Tales of Wells Fargo, a popular Western television show. The show starred Robertson, and was on the air from 1957 to 1962, for 202 episodes. They are still being shown today on at least one pay cable network and one nostalgia channel on basic cable.
Robertson had a presence as an actor; tall, handsome and as his war record showed, just shy of bullet-proof. He was mucho macho. Heath was perhaps one of the top comic book artists of the era after World War II, when he worked for Timely/Atlas, and then freelanced for many years, doing a lot of war comics, among others. Heath’s art style was dynamic. He had studied art, and he could draw. Robertson became an actor without studying acting.
Both Robertson and Heath are now deceased: Robertson in 2013, and Heath in 2018.
Gaylord Dubois, who also wrote the comic book Tarzan for Dell, wrote “Thunder Over Lost Soldier Gulch.”
From Tales of Wells Fargo #1215 (1961):
