Jules Levy, 80; Producer of TV’s ‘Rifleman,’ Independent Films

Jules Levy, 80, producer of such popular television series as “The Rifleman” and “The Big Valley,” died Saturday in Los Angeles of unspecified causes.

The Los Angeles native, who was reared in Beverly Hills, joined the Army Air Forces during World War II, serving in a production unit at Hal Roach Studios in Culver City. He served under actor (and future Gov. and President) Ronald Reagan and began working with the two men who would become his business partners, Arthur Gardner and Arnold Laven.

The trio formed Levy-Gardner-Laven in 1951 and hit their stride in the 1950s and 1960s with western television series such as “The Rifleman,” starring Chuck Connors; “The Big Valley,” with Barbara Stanwyck as matriarch of a pioneering ranching clan in California’s Central Valley; and “The Detectives, Starring Robert Taylor.”

They also made profitable independent films, initially bypassing top-price stars for lesser known but solid talents such as Tom Tryon and Harve Presnell in 1965’s “The Glory Guys,” the first feature by a young writer named Sam Peckinpah. Later films included 1974’s “McQ,” starring John Wayne.