Roger Ewing, the long and lean actor who portrayed the deputy marshal and handyman Thad Greenwood for two seasons on Gunsmoke in the 1960s, has died. He was 83. A longtime resident of Morro Bay, California, Ewing died Dec. 18, his family reported. The 6-foot-4 Ewing, then 23, first showed up on CBS’ Gunsmoke as a character named Ben Lukens on an episode that aired in February 1965, then was introduced to viewers as Thad the following October on the third installment of season 11. A deputy and son of an elderly Oklahoma sheriff (Paul Fix), Thad arrives in Dodge City pursuing four vandals who had caused his dad to have a fatal heart attack but learns his warrant isn’t executable in Dodge. After all four are either killed or captured for stealing cattle, Marshal Matt Dillon (James Arness) asks Thad to stick around as a deputy. “With Thad’s family gone, Matt, Kitty [Amanda Blake], Doc [Milburn Stone] and Festus [Ken Curtis] sort of adopted him,” he once said. “Anything that needed to be done, …