Actor in Critical Condition After Surgery

ORANGE — Actor Guy Madison, known to generations of youngsters as television’s “Wild Bill Hickok,” was in critical condition Wednesday after eight hours of lung surgery, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Madison, 69, underwent surgery Tuesday at UCI Medical Center in Orange, said his spokeswoman, Marla Capra. The surgery was to repair lung tissue damaged in a 1988 auto crash.

Madison had stopped to change a flat tire on the Santa Monica Freeway when his Thunderbird was rear-ended and pushed into traffic, where it was struck by a tractor-trailer rig. One of the actor’s lungs was damaged, and he suffered a dislocated shoulder.

Madison starred in more than 85 motion pictures, including “The Command” with James Whitmore and “The Last Frontier” with Victor Mature and Robert Preston.

But he is probably best remembered for his TV role as Marshal James Butler Hickok in “The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok” from 1951 to 1958.