| Ken Curtis | |
|---|---|
 Ken Curtis played the part of Festus Hagen on "Gunsmoke" in Seasons 9-20 of the series. | |
| General Actor Information | |
| Gender: | Male |
| Birthname: | Curtis Wain Gates |
| Born: | July 2, 1916 |
| Birthplace | Lamar, Colorado, U.S. |
| Died | April 28, 1991 (aged 74) |
| Death Location | Fresno, California, U.S. |
| Occupation/ Career: |
Actor |
| Years active: | 1941-1991 |
| Appearances/Series information | |
| Appeared on: | Gunsmoke (TV series) |
| Episode(s) appeared in: |
306 in series, Seasons 9-20 |
| Appears as: | Festus Haggen |
Ken Curtis (born July 2, 1916 – died April 28, 1991; aged 74) was the actor who played Festus Haggen in seasons 8-20 of Gunsmoke. Although he appeared on Gunsmoke earlier in other roles, he was first cast as Festus in season 8 episode 13, December 8, 1962 "Us Haggens" (episode #13). His next appearance was in the Season 9 episode (#2) on October 5, 1963 as Kyle Kelly, in "Lover Boy". Curtis joined the cast of Gunsmoke permanently as Festus in the episode "Prairie Wolfer" in Season 9 (episode #16, January 18, 1964), though this fact is often confused with a 1969 Season 13 episode of the same name ("Prairie Wolfer") made five years later (episode #10).
Career[]
Ken was a singer before moving into acting, and combined both careers once he entered films.[1] Curtis was with the Tommy Dorsey band in 1941, and succeeded Frank Sinatra as vocalist until Dick Haymes contractually replaced Sinatra in 1942. Curtis may have served simply as insurance against Sinatra's likely defection, and it was Dorsey who suggested that Gates change his name to Ken Curtis. Curtis then joined Shep Fields and His New Music, an all-reeds band that dispensed with a brass section.
Curtis met his first wife, Lorraine Page, at Universal Studios, and they were married in 1943. For much of 1948, Curtis was a featured singer and host of the long-running country music radio program WWVA Jamboree.
Ken joined the Sons of the Pioneers as a lead singer from 1949 to 1952. His big hits with the group included "Room Full of Roses" and "(Ghost) Riders in the Sky".
Columbia Pictures signed Curtis to a contract in 1945. He starred in a series of musical Westerns[2] with the Hoosier Hot Shots, playing singing cowboy romantic leads.
Through his second marriage, Curtis was a son-in-law of film director John Ford. Curtis teamed with Ford and John Wayne in Rio Grande. He was a singer in the movie's fictional band The Regimental Singers that actually consisted of the Sons of the Pioneers; Curtis is not listed as a member of the principal cast. It is possible that he played a bit part, but Curtis is best remembered as Charlie McCorry in The Searchers (starring John Wayne), The Quiet Man, The Wings of Eagles]], The Horse Soldiers]], The Alamo, and How The West Was Won. Curtis also joined Ford, along with Henry Fonda, James Cagney, William Powell, and Jack Lemmon, in the comedy Navy classic Mister Roberts. He was featured in all three of the only films produced by Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney's C. V. Whitney Pictures: The Searchers (1956); The Missouri Traveler (1958) with Brandon deWilde and Lee Marvin; and '[The Young Land (1959) with Patrick Wayne and Dennis Hopper. In 5 Steps to Danger (1957 film), he is uncredited as FBI Agent Jim Anderson. Curtis also produced two extremely low-budget monster films in 1959, The Killer Shrews and The Giant Gila Monster. Also, in the film adaptation Conagher based on a book by popular writer Louis L'Amour, he starred opposite Sam Elliott as an aging cattleman.
Curtis guest-starred five times on the Western television series Have Gun – Will Travel with Richard Boone. In 1959, he appeared as cowhand Phil Jakes on the Gunsmoke season four episode, "Jayhawkers". He also guest-starred as circus performer Tim Durant on an episode of Perry Mason, "The Case of the Clumsy Clown", which originally aired on November 5, 1960. Later, he appeared in Ripcord, a first-run syndicated action/adventure series about a company of its namesake providing skydiving services, along with its leading star Larry Pennell. This series ran from 1961 to 1963 with 76 half-hour episodes in total. Curtis played the role of James (Jim) Buckley and Pennell was his young disciple Theodore (Ted) McKeever. This television show helped generate interest in sport parachuting.
In 1964, Curtis appeared as muleskinner Graydon in the episode "Graydon's Charge" of the syndicated Western television series, Death Valley Days, also guest-starring Denver Pyle and Cathy Lewis.
Later years[]
In 1981, Curtis was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Curtis' last acting role was as the aging cattle rancher "Seaborn Tay" in the television production Conagher (1991), by western author Louis L'Amour. Sam Elliott starred in the lead role, and Curtis' Gunsmoke co-star Buck Taylor (Newly O'Brien) played a bad man in the same film. Buck Taylor's father, Dub Taylor, had a minor role in it. He joined the Gunsmoke cast in 1967, superseding the previous deputy, Thaddeus "Thad" Greenwood, played by Roger Ewing.
Death[]
Curtis died on April 28, 1991, in his sleep of a heart attack in Fresno, CA.[3] He was cremated, and his ashes were scattered in the Colorado flatlands.
Refefences[]
- ↑ Gunsmoke: GunsmokeNet.com.
- ↑ "Ken Curtis appeared in a number of cheesy movies," GunsmokeNet.com
- ↑ Ken Curtis Obituary, Los Angeles Times, GunsmokeNet.com
External links[]
- Ken Curtis at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ken Curtis at the Internet Movie Database
