Los Angeles ( CNN ) -- Dale Robertson , whose horse expertise , Oklahoma roots and handsome looks helped him win cowboy roles in 1950s and '60s , has died at age 89 , his wife said Thursday . Robertson was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer just last week while being treated for pneumonia at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla , California , Susan Robertson said . He died Tuesday . `` He always said he lived two or three lifetimes , '' she said . `` He was in Hollywood when it was great . '' People we 've lost in 2013 : The lives they lived . Robertson 's acting career began after a movie scout saw a photo of him in a Hollywood photo shop 's display window . He had the portrait taken to send to his mother while he was stationed at an Army post in California , according to his official biography . He acted in several uncredited movie roles in 1948 after he left the Army , leading to his role as the outlaw Jesse James in `` Fighting Man of the Plains '' in 1949 . Robertson starred in the TV Western series `` Tales of Wells Fargo '' from 1957 through 1962 , riding a horse named Jubilee . During the last hours of his life , as he lay in a hospital bed , his wife comforted Robertson by whispering thoughts of what awaited him in the afterlife . `` I told him that Jubilee and Chief ( his favorite dog ) would be waiting to greet him , '' his wife told CNN . The role of a cowboy was not a stretch for Robertson , who grew up on an Oklahoma horse ranch . He and his wife raised horses in Oklahoma until moving to a San Diego suburb last summer , Susan Robertson said . Robertson never sought formal acting training , based on advice that he should keep his own personality , according to his biography . In the 1966 TV series `` Iron Horse , '' Robertson played a character who won a railway in a high-stakes poker game . He hosted , along with Ronald Reagan , episodes of `` Death Valley Days '' during the 1960s . Film roles , also mostly Westerns , included `` Devil 's Canyon , '' `` Sitting Bull , '' and `` Dakota Incident . '' In the 1980s , Robertson was a regular on the first season of `` Dynasty , '' and acted in episodes of `` The Love Boat , '' `` Murder , She Wrote '' and `` Dallas . '' His last role came in two episodes of the TV series `` Harts of the West '' in 1993 . The final 15 years of Robertson 's life were spent in ill health , partly because of wounds suffered while serving in a tank crew in North Africa and Europe during World War II , his wife said . His wife called for an ambulance to take him to the hospital because of pain last week , she said . Doctors were treating him for pneumonia when tests revealed he had lung cancer that had spread to his brain , bones , liver and lymph nodes , she said .
Robertson 's acting career began after a movie scout saw his photo . He was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer last week while being treated for pneumonia . Cowboy roles were not a stretch for Robertson , who grew up on Oklahoma ranch . `` He was in Hollywood when it was great , '' his wife says .