Ken Curtis was an American singer and actor best known for his role as Festus Haggen on
the long-running CBS western television series Gunsmoke.
Biography Early years
Though born Curtis Wain Gates in Lamar in Prowers County in southeastern Colorado, Curtis
was reared west of there in Las Animas, the seat of Bent County. His father, Dan Gates,
was the Bent County sheriff. The family lived above the jail and his mother, Nellie Sneed
Gates, cooked for the prisoners. The jail is now located for historical preservation
purposes on the grounds of the Bent County courthouse in Las Animas.
Curtis played quarterback for his high school football team. During World War II, Curtis
served in the United States Army. Curtis attended Colorado College to study
Medicine. Career
Curtis was a singer before moving into acting and combined both careers once he entered
films, performing with the popular Sons of the Pioneers from 1949 to 1953 as well as
singing with the Tommy Dorsey band. Curtis replaced Frank Sinatra as vocalist for the
Dorsey band. He was with the Dorsey band in 1941, prior to Sinatra's departure, and may
have served simply as insurance against Sinatra's likely defection. Dick Haymes contractually
replaced Sinatra, in 1942. Curtis then joined Shep Fields and His New Music, an all-reeds
band that dispensed with a brass section. Columbia Pictures signed Curtis to a contract
in 1945. He starred in a series of musical westerns with The Hoosier Hot Shots, playing
singing-cowboy romantic leads. For much of 1948, Curtis was a featured singer and host
of the long-running country music radio program WWVA Jamboree.
Ken Curtis joined the Sons of the Pioneers as a lead singer from 1949 to 1952. Ken's
big hits with the group included "Room Full of Roses" and "(Ghost) Riders in the Sky".
Through his first marriage, Curtis was a son-in-law of director John Ford. Curtis teamed with
Ford and John Wayne in Rio Grande, The Quiet Man, The Wings of Eagles, The Searchers, 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; The Missouri Traveler with Brandon deWilde
and Lee Marvin; and The Young Land with Patrick Wayne and Dennis Hopper. 5 Steps to Danger
as FBI Agent Jim Anderson. Curtis also produced two extremely low-budget monster films, The
Killer Shrews and The Giant Gila Monster. Curtis guest-starred five times on the TV
Series Western Have Gun Will Travel. He also guest-starred as circus performer Tim Durant
on an episode of Perry Mason, "The Case of the Clumsy Clown", which aired on November
5, 1960. He then co-starred with Larry Pennell in the 1961–1963 syndicated television series
Ripcord, a half-hour drama about a skydiving service company. Curtis played the role of
"Jim Buckley" and Pennell was "Ted McKeever." The series helped generate interest in the
sport of parachuting. Gunsmoke
Curtis remains best known for his role as Festus, the scruffy, cantankerous, illiterate
office and jail custodian in Gunsmoke. While Marshal Matt Dillon had a total of five helpers
over two decades, Festus held the role the longest, in 239 episodes, and was the most
colorful. Festus was patterned after "Cedar Jack", a man from Curtis' Las Animas childhood.
Cedar Jack, who lived about forty miles out of town, made a living cutting cedar fence
posts. Curtis observed the many times Jack would come to Las Animas, where he would usually
end up drunk and in jail. Festus' character was known, in part, for his nasally, twangy,
rural accent which Curtis developed for the role, but which did not reflect Curtis' actual
voice. Besides engaging in the usual personal appearances
most television stars undertake to promote their program, Curtis also traveled around
the country performing a western-themed stage show at fairs, rodeos and other venues when
Gunsmoke wasn't in production, and even for some years after the show was canceled.
In two episodes of Gunsmoke, Carroll O'Connor was a guest-star; years later Curtis guest-starred
as a retired police detective on O'Connor's NBC program In the Heat of the Night. He voiced
Nutsy the vulture in Disney's 1973 animated film Robin Hood. In 1983 he returned to television
in the short-lived western series The Yellow Rose.
Last 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, by western author Louis
L'Amour. Sam Elliott starred in the lead role, and Curtis' Gunsmoke costar Buck Taylor played
a bad man in the same film. Buck Taylor's father, Dub Taylor, had a minor role in the
film. Taylor joined the Gunsmoke cast in 1967, superseding the previous deputy, Thaddeus
"Thad" Greenwood, played by Roger Ewing. A statue of Ken Curtis as Festus can be found
at 430 Pollasky Avenue in Clovis, California in Fresno County in front of the Educational
Employees Credit Union. In his later years, Curtis resided in Clovis.
Death Curtis died in his sleep of natural causes
in Fresno, California. He was cremated, and his ashes were scattered in the Colorado flatlands.
Filmography Rio Grande - Donnelly - Regimental Singer
The Quiet Man - Dermot Fahy The Searchers - Charlie McCorry
The Wings of Eagles - John Dale Price Escort West - Trooper Burch
The Horse Soldiers - Cpl. Wilkie The Alamo - Capt. Almeron Dickinson
Two Rode West - Greeley Clegg How the West Was Won - Cpl. Ben
Cheyenne Autumn - Joe Robin Hood - Nutsy - A Vulture
Conagher - TV movie - Seaborn Tay, Cattle Rancher
Television The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp - Episode
- Warpath - Major Hendericks Gunsmoke - 304 episodes - Festus
Wagon Train - episode - The Horace Best Story - Pappy Lightfoot
Wagon Train - episode - The Colter Craven Story - Kyle Cleatus(1960)
Perry Mason - episode - The Case of the Clumsy Clown - Tim Durant (1960
Sea Hunt -episode - The Octopus Story - Dean Death Valley Days - Graydon's Charge - Graydon
The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams - Episode - Once Upon a Starry Night
Vega$ - Episode - Death Mountain - Digger Dennison
How the West Was Won - TV Mini-Series - Episode - Hillary - Sheriff Orville Gant
The Yellow Rose - 22 episodes - Hoyt Coryell Airwolf - Episode - Wildfire - Cecil Carnes
Sr. In the Heat of the Night - Episode - December
Days - Tom McCauley References
External links Ken Curtis at Find a Grave
Ken Curtis at the Internet Movie Database Michael Breid shares memories of being part
of Ken Curtis' backup band for his stage show during the 70s
Chuck Anderson. "Ken Curtis". The Old Corral. Retrieved December 30, 2008.
Teresa Murray. "Ken Curtis Biography". Evil Twin. Retrieved December 30, 2008.