TV ACRES: Bears > Grizzly & Wild Bears > Gentle Ben
 Grizzly & Wild Bears
Gentle        Ben - Large American black bear on the animal adventure GENTLE        BEN/CBS/1967-69.
 Ben stood over eight feet tall on his hind legs and        weighed over 630 pounds. Born in the Everglades in Florida, Ben was the        family pet and constant companion of Mark Wedloe (Clint Howard), whose        father, Tom (Dennis Weaver) was game warden at the local Coral Key Park.        The Ben character was based on the novel by Walt Morey about a boy and his        bear. The television series, a spin-off of the movie Gentle Giant (1967)        transposed the novels northern setting to the Florida Everglades where a        boy befriended a bear cub after its mother was shot by a drunken hunter.
The real bear who played Ben (originally called Bruno) has led a charmed        life. As a bear cub, Ben and his brother, Smokey were orphaned in White        Lake, Wisconsin and were sent to live at the original AFRICA, USA, a wild        animal "affection training ranch" in Soledad Canyon near Los Angeles.
In        1969, a flood destroyed the ranch. Ben was found alive and safe two miles        down the canyon but covered with mud and weighing a few pounds less.        Another time, a runaway locomotive fell off its track and crushed Ben's        cage. Luckily, the bear had vacated the cage to go walking with his        trainer. Ben's chief trainer was Monty Cox. Ben's main stand-in was a bear        named Buck (used for the running scenes).
Dennis Weaver told TV Guide in        1970 "I liked him (Ben), but it was a cold relationship. Bears aren't like        dogs and horses. Ben didn't know me from a bag of doughnuts."
In 2002,        Animal Planet cable channel in association with Hallmark Entertainment        sponsored remakes of the original series entitled Gentle Ben a.k.a. Terror        On the Mountain starring Dean Cain as Jack Wedloe and Reiley McClendon as        his son, Mark; and the sequel Gentle Ben 2: Danger on the Mountain, a.k.a. Black Gold (2003).
A company called 'Bear With Us' provided animals for both        TV movies which were filmed in Placer County in Northern California.        Bonkers the Bear played the role of Gentle Ben.
TRIVIA NOTE: The adventure        novel "Gentle Ben" by Walt Morey tells the tale of lonely boy named Mark        Andersen who befriends a Ben, a huge Alaskan brown bear.
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