Mason Alan Dinehart
Actor · Born April 30, 1936 (90) · Hollywood, California, USA
Mason Alan Dinehart (born April 30, 1936), also known as Mason Alan Dinehart III, Alan Dinehart III, or Mase Dinehart, is an American business consultant and retired actor best known for his role as a youthful Bat Masterson in thirty-four episodes between 1955 and 1959 of the ABC/Desilu television series The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, starring Hugh O'Brian in the title role of the frontier marshal Wyatt Earp. The Hollywood-born Dinehart was the only son of the actor Alan Dinehart and Dinehart's second wife, actress journalist, casting director and songwriter Mozelle Britton.[2] In 1936, he legally changed his name to Mason Alan Dinehart, the same name as his father, so that his younger son from the second marriage could be known as Mason Alan Dinehart III. This name change created confusion because the senior Dinehart's first son from his first marriage was already Alan Dinehart Jr. (1918–1992),[3] the former animation and voice director for Hanna-Barbera.[4] Mason Alan Dinehart has been married four times and has seven surviving children. A son, Scott Dinehart, died in 2010 of an emergency hip operation.[citation needed] He has two children each from his first and second marriages to Evelyn Myers (1954–1958) and Barbara Blakely (1958–1965), respectively. In 1982, he married for the fourth time; he and the former Miranda Gazal have four children. Dinehart played the youthful Bat Masterson who is the understudy of Wyatt Earp in learning the proper techniques of frontier law enforcement. Earp rarely calls him "Bat" but "Mr. Masterson" to teach the young man maturity. In a 1956 episode "Bat Masterson Again," Earp shows young Masterson on the proper use of a pistol. During this time Masterson was elected sheriff of Ford County, Kansas, which includes the county seat of Dodge City. Bill Tilghman had been denied the right to run for sheriff again. Earp as an appointed town marshal works with an elected sheriff, and their differences in jurisdiction do not cause any problems. Bat's brother, Ed Masterson, played by Brad Johnson, formerly the deputy sheriff on the Annie Oakley television series, is shot in an ambush by drunken cowboys, and Masterson settles the score. When Earp finally comes to Tombstone, Arizona Territory, he lacks the working relationship with Sheriff Johnny Behan that he had in Kansas with Bat Masterson. Dinehart's performance of Masterson was so highly regarded that ABC offered him a spinoff series, but he declined, soon left acting, and entered the business field. Dinehart's last appearance on the series is the episode "Dodge Is Civilized" (April 28, 1959), in which he serves notice that he is headed to Tombstone, where he hopes Earp will join him in time. There is never a reunion show, and the Masterson character, now a gambler, is written out of The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp. The historical Earp did visit Tombstone to see his friend Masterson, who in time became a figure of western folklore, finishing his long career as a sportswriter in New York City. Masterson's hat inspired the name of the Brown Derby restaurants in Los Angeles. CLR From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Biography from TMDB.
- April 30, 1936 (90)
- Hollywood, California, USA
- Actor
- 7 on MovieCove · 11 credits in all
What are Mason Alan Dinehart's films like?
Across a limited sample of 3 MovieCove titles with a thematic analysis, their films lean Bonds and Self.
What they feel like to watch
Ironic 0 · Wry 0 · Earnest 3
Light 1 · Serious 1 · Dark 1
Grounded 3 · Stylized 0 · Heightened 0
Gentle 0 · Charged 3 · Intense 0
Steady 1 · Shifting 2 · Whiplash 0
Straight-faced 2 · Some laughs 1 · Funny 0
Slow burn 1 · Even-paced 2 · Relentless 0
Casual 3 · Engaged 0 · Full focus 0
Easy watch 3 · Affecting 0 · Heavy 0
Resolved 3 · Open-ended 0 · Ambiguous 0
Roles they play
- Mentoras Kit in Roadracers (1959)
Moods and endings
AI-generated from each title's plot synopsis and cast list, with extra plot summaries, reviews and Parents Guide notes for titles the model may not know, and the model's own knowledge of the ones it recognizes. Only analyzed titles count, so this covers part of the filmography; the feel axes count films only for now.
Where can I watch Mason Alan Dinehart's films?
As of October 24, 2026, 3 of their 7 MovieCove titles stream on a subscription or free service, most on Tubi (3).
Subscription and free streaming for Mason Alan Dinehart's titles on MovieCove; rent and buy are not counted. Titles are listed by Midcredits score, highest first, at most 12 per service; a dashed chip is a producer credit or a minor one, such as a thanks. A service opens the browse page, which counts movies only, so its number can differ.
Filmography
11 credits, 7 with a MovieCove page.
Platinum High School (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1960)
Cast a Long Shadow(1959)
Midcredits score: 48th percentile of all films
Roadracers(1959)
Midcredits score: 11th percentile of all films
The Hot Angel(1958)
Midcredits score: 23rd percentile of all films (provisional, few ratings)
Jet Pilot(1957)
Midcredits score: 35th percentile of all films
The Careless Years(1957)
Midcredits score: 21st percentile of all films
Follow the Sun (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1951)
Apache Drums(1951)
Midcredits score: 63rd percentile of all films
The Happy Years (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1950)
Easy Living(1949)
Midcredits score: 50th percentile of all films
Blondie's Big Deal (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1949)
Career shape
Star power in the 31st percentile of 239,109 people with a billed film role, over a full career of 11 titles from 1949 to 1960.
Film career
- 1951Screen debut· Apache Drums
Counts from TMDB across their full career, self appearances out; a title counts in every role they held on it. The ring is the typical Midcredits score (the median percentile) of the role's titles that are on MovieCove, shown from 5 scored.
How do Mason Alan Dinehart's films land?
Their typical MovieCove film has a Midcredits score in the 35th percentile, the median of all 7; across a limited sample of 3 films with reception data, the typical film sits in the 24th percentile for acclaim.
- 50th to 74th2
- 25th to 49th2
- Below 25th3
Shape of the crowd
2 of their 7 titles are Crowd Pleasers.
- Cult Classic1
- Crowd Pleaser2
- Broadly Agreed2
- Mixed2
Percentiles are each film's standing among all films on MovieCove; the typical film is the median, so one outlier cannot drag it. Percentiles and reviewer scores count the films IMDb credits them on, for now; the Midcredits score bands, the shape of the crowd and the two cards count their MovieCove titles, shows included (a show ranked among shows), appearances as themselves left out. A descriptor is the shape of a title's IMDb rating distribution against the catalog; "most divisive" needs a spread wider than half of all titles, and a card names only a principal credit: a craft role, and on a show a crew role or a run of episodes, never a courtesy credit or a one-off guest spot.
Who does Mason Alan Dinehart work with?
People who share at least 2 of Mason Alan Dinehart's MovieCove titles; Stanley Kallis shares the most, 2.
- Stanley KallisShared titles: Roadracers (1959), The Hot Angel (1958)See all 2 shared titles with Stanley Kallis
- Richard MarkowitzShared titles: Roadracers (1959), The Hot Angel (1958)See all 2 shared titles with Richard Markowitz