Loveless' family had received a valuable land grant in California from the Spanish Viceroy of Mexico. Their land was taken back by the Spanish Crown; and then irretrievably lost however, when California became part of the United States. His original goal was to recover his family's property and create a haven where the disadvantaged could live without torment from society. As the series progressed, however, he became more and more megalomaniacal. West is able to defeat Loveless by using Loveless' own ego against him. In "The Night of the Bogus Bandits", it is revealed that Loveless' greatest fear is not death, but the fact that once deceased, he cannot continue his plans of revenge against a society which he hates so much. Loveless was known as a technologicalgenius that produced gadgets far ahead of his time-which his archenemy James West acknowledges. In the series' first season, his inventions were more practical, anticipating the cathode-ray tube, the airplane, penicillin; automobile and a synthesized LSD-like hallucinogen. In the second season, the inventions became more fantastic and included a powder that shrank Jim West to one-twelfth his original size and a device that allowed people to enter paintings. Perhaps the most phantasmagorical of his methods for avoiding capture was when he and his lovely assistant Antoinette escaped West and Gordon by shrinking themselves and flying away on the back of a swan. In one episode Dunn did a parody of a fanatic over-detailed film director while he "rehearsed" crimes. In the last episode which he appeared, Dr. Loveless escaped by using a circus cannon to shoot him into space; the only trace of him is his circus ringmasters uniform on the ground along with a recording promising West that they will meet again. According to the 1979 television filmThe Wild Wild West Revisited, in 1880, Loveless eventually died of ulcers resulting from anger and frustration at having his plans consistently ruined by West and Gordon, while in reality his actor, Michael Dunn, died in 1973. As a result, his son Michelito subsequently seeks revenge on the agents.
Appearances
Loveless was created by writer John Kneubuhl after he read a magazine article about Dunn. The character was introduced in the 1965 episode "The Night the Wizard Shook The Earth", which was the show's third televised episode. Loveless became an immediate hit and Dunn appeared in ten episodes over four seasons, with Kneubuhl writing five of them.
"The Night the Wizard Shook the Earth" - Episode #3
"The Night That Terror Stalked the Town" - Episode #10
"The Night of the Whirring Death" - Episode #20
"The Night of the Murderous Spring" - Episode #27
"The Night of the Raven" - Episode #31
"The Night of the Green Terror" - Episode #38
"The Night of the Surreal McCoy" - Episode #51
"The Night of the Bogus Bandits" - Episode #56
"The Night Dr. Loveless Died" - Episode #60
"The Night of Miguelito's Revenge" - Episode #92
Accomplices
Dr. Loveless initially had two companions: the hulking mute Voltaire and the beautiful songstress Antoinette. Voltaire disappeared after the doctor's third encounter with the agents; Antoinette, after the sixth. However, they each left such an indelible impression on fans that the 1990 comic book miniseries from Millennium Publications, a sequel to the TV series scripted by Mark Ellis with art by Darryl Banks, included both characters.
Film counterpart
Arliss Loveless appeared in the 1999 film adaptation Wild Wild West, played by Kenneth Branagh and featuring several major changes from his original television counterpart. For instance, Branagh's Loveless was a former Confederatemilitary engineer who had lost most of his lower body in an accidental explosion. As a double amputee, he used a steam-powered wheelchair in order to move around and created similar innovative contraptions. Loveless was incensed at the South's surrender and sought to dismember the United States and distribute its territory among the Native American tribes and its original European colonizers. He also has a personal history/feud with Jim West; an early tank he designed massacred the population of a freed slave colony, including West's parents.
