[3][4] Although his extracurricular activity at Santa Monica High appears to have been primarily musical (he played clarinet), Griffith's devotion to the theater outside of school hours, as reported by the San Luis Obispo Tribune, mirrored that of Ford.

He found success in the production They Can't Get You Down in 1939, but put his career on hold during World War II to serve with the United States Marine Corps.

[citation needed] Though Griffith was generally cast as the outlaw in Western pictures,[6] he managed to garner a few memorable "good guy" roles over his many years in Hollywood – Abraham Lincoln in both 1950's Stage to Tucson and 1955's Apache Ambush (as well as episodes of Cavalcade of America and—as a Lincoln lookalike—The Lone Ranger), Doc Holliday in 1954's Masterson of Kansas, sheriff Pat Garrett in 1954's The Law vs. Billy the Kid, and Davy Crockett in 1956's The First Texan.

[7] In 1951's Apache Drums, Griffith portrayed a cavalry officer sensitive to Native-American concerns, and in 1957, he co-starred on Gunsmoke, playing a simple farmer involved in a feud in S3E16's "Twelfth Night".

[10][11] In 1959, Griffith appeared as John Wesley Hardin on the TV western Maverick in the episode titled "Duel at Sundown" featuring James Garner and Clint Eastwood.