Ken Curtis
Encyclopedia
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
.
, the seat of Bent County
, west of the larger community of Lamar
in southeastern Colorado
. His father, Dan Gates, was the sheriff
. The family lived above the jail and his mother, Nellie Sneed Gates, cooked for the prisoners. The jail is 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.
from 1949 to 1953 as well as singing with the Tommy Dorsey
band. Curtis replaced Frank Sinatra
as vocalist for the Dorsey band, but details of Curtis's relationship with the band are unclear. 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
.
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. In the 1950s, Curtis tried his hand at producing two extremely low-budget monster films, The Killer Shrews
and The Giant Gila Monster
. Curtis also guest starred on an episode of Perry Mason
— as a circus clown
.
In the late 50s, Curtis was featured in all three of the only films produced by Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney
's C. V. Whitney Pictures; the first was The Searchers in 1956 with John Wayne, the second was The Missouri Traveler
in 1958 with Brandon De Wilde
and Lee Marvin
and the third was The Young Land
in 1959 with Patrick Wayne
and Dennis Hopper
.
Curtis also 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
.
had a total of five helpers over two decades, Festus held the role the longest (eleven years), 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
.
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 costar Buck Taylor
(Newly O'Brien) 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, Clovis, CA, in front of the Educational Employees Credit Union. Ken Curtis was a resident of Clovis
.
, California. He was cremated
, and his ashes were scattered in the Colorado
flatlands.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
singer and actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
best known for his role as Festus Haggen
Festus Haggen
Festus Haggen was Marshal Matt Dillon's only official deputy on the CBS television series Gunsmoke. He came to Dodge City in an episode titled "Us Haggens" to avenge the death of his twin brother, Fergus. Played by Ken Curtis, he first appeared in 1962 and was showcased full-time from 1964 until 1975...
on the long-running CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
television series Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West....
.
Early years
Curtis was born Curtis Wain Gates and reared in Las AnimasLas Animas, Colorado
200px|right|thumb|St. Mary's [[Catholic]] Church in Las AnimasThe city of Las Animas is a Statutory City that is the county seat of, and the only incorporated municipality in, Bent County, Colorado, United States. The population was 2,410 at the 2010 census. Las Animas, located in southeast...
, the seat of Bent County
Bent County, Colorado
Bent County is one of the 64 counties of the state of Colorado of the United States. The county is named in honor of frontier trader William Bent. The county population was 5,998 at U.S. Census 2000...
, west of the larger community of Lamar
Lamar, Colorado
The City of Lamar is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Prowers County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 8,869 at the U.S...
in southeastern Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
. His father, Dan Gates, was the sheriff
Sheriff
A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....
. The family lived above the jail and his mother, Nellie Sneed Gates, cooked for the prisoners. The jail is located for historical preservation purposes on the grounds of the Bent County
Bent County, Colorado
Bent County is one of the 64 counties of the state of Colorado of the United States. The county is named in honor of frontier trader William Bent. The county population was 5,998 at U.S. Census 2000...
courthouse in Las Animas.
Curtis played quarterback
Quarterback
Quarterback is a position in American and Canadian football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the offensive line...
for his high school football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
team.
Career
Curtis was a singer before moving into acting and combined both careers once he entered films, performing with the popular Sons of the PioneersSons of the Pioneers
The Sons of the Pioneers are one of America's earliest Western singing groups whose classic recordings set a new standard for performers of Western music. Known for the high quality of their vocal performances, musicianship, and songwriting, they produced finely-crafted and innovative recordings...
from 1949 to 1953 as well as singing with the Tommy Dorsey
Tommy Dorsey
Thomas Francis "Tommy" Dorsey, Jr. was an American jazz trombonist, trumpeter, composer, and bandleader of the Big Band era. He was known as "The Sentimental Gentleman of Swing", due to his smooth-toned trombone playing. He was the younger brother of bandleader Jimmy Dorsey...
band. Curtis replaced Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
as vocalist for the Dorsey band, but details of Curtis's relationship with the band are unclear. 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
Dick Haymes
Richard Benjamin "Dick" Haymes was an Argentine actor and one of the most popular male vocalists of the 1940s and early 1950s. He was the older brother of Bob Haymes, who was an actor, television host, and songwriter....
contractually replaced Sinatra, in 1942. Curtis then joined Shep Fields
Shep Fields
Shep Fields was the band leader for the "Shep Fields and His Rippling Rhythm" orchestra during the Big Band era of the 1930s.-Biography:...
and His New Music, an all-reeds band that dispensed with a brass section.
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
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
WWVA Jamboree
WWVA Jamboree, renamed Jamboree U.S.A. in the 1960s, and the Wheeling Jamboree in 2009, is a pioneering American radio show that featured country music from 1933–2008, and again since January 2009...
.
Through his first marriage, Curtis was a son-in-law of director John Ford
John Ford
John Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...
. Curtis teamed with Ford and John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
in Rio Grande
Rio Grande (film)
Rio Grande is a 1950 Western film. It is the third installment of John Ford's "cavalry trilogy," following two RKO Pictures releases: Fort Apache and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon ....
, The Quiet Man
The Quiet Man
The Quiet Man is a 1952 American Technicolor romantic comedy-drama film. It was directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, Victor McLaglen and Barry Fitzgerald. It was based on a 1933 Saturday Evening Post short story by Maurice Walsh...
, The Wings of Eagles
The Wings of Eagles
The Wings of Eagles is a 1957 Metrocolor film about Frank "Spig" Wead and US Naval aviation from its inception through World War II. The film is a tribute to Wead from his friend, director John Ford....
, The Searchers
The Searchers (film)
The Searchers is a 1956 American Western film directed by John Ford, based on the 1954 novel by Alan Le May, and set during the Texas–Indian Wars...
, The Horse Soldiers
The Horse Soldiers
The Horse Soldiers is a 1959 DeLuxe Color war film, set in the American Civil War, directed by John Ford, starring John Wayne, William Holden and Constance Towers...
, The Alamo
The Alamo (1960 film)
The Alamo is a 1960 American historical epic released by United Artists. The film was directed by John Wayne, who also starred as Davy Crockett. The cast also includes Richard Widmark as Jim Bowie and Laurence Harvey as William B...
and How The West Was Won
How the West Was Won (film)
How the West Was Won is a 1962 American epic Western film. The picture was one of the last "old-fashioned" epic films made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to enjoy great success. It follows four generations of a family as they move ever westward, from western New York state to the Pacific Ocean...
. Curtis also joined Ford, along with Henry Fonda
Henry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
, James Cagney
James Cagney
James Francis Cagney, Jr. was an American actor, first on stage, then in film, where he had his greatest impact. Although he won acclaim and major awards for a wide variety of performances, he is best remembered for playing "tough guys." In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him eighth...
, William Powell
William Powell
William Horatio Powell was an American actor.A major star at MGM, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the popular Thin Man series in which Powell and Loy played Nick and Nora Charles...
, and Jack Lemmon
Jack Lemmon
John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III was an American actor and musician. He starred in more than 60 films including Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Mister Roberts , Days of Wine and Roses, The Great Race, Irma la Douce, The Odd Couple, Save the Tiger John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III (February 8, 1925June...
in the comedy Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
classic Mister Roberts. In the 1950s, Curtis tried his hand at producing two extremely low-budget monster films, The Killer Shrews
The Killer Shrews
The Killer Shrews is a 1959 science fiction film directed by Ray Kellogg. It has been released on DVD and is considered a cult classic. It was featured in the fourth season of Mystery Science Theater 3000, as well as the first season of the similar show This Movie Sucks!.-Plot:Thorne Sherman and...
and The Giant Gila Monster
The Giant Gila Monster
The Giant Gila Monster is a 1959 black-and-white science fiction film directed by Ray Kellogg, and produced by Ken Curtis. It stars Don Sullivan, Lisa Simone, as well as Fred Graham, Shug Fisher and Bob Thompson. This low-budget B-Movie featured a cast of unknown actors, and the effects included a...
. Curtis also guest starred on an episode of Perry Mason
Perry Mason (TV series)
Perry Mason is an American legal drama produced by Paisano Productions that ran from September 1957 to May 1966 on CBS. The title character, portrayed by Raymond Burr, is a fictional Los Angeles defense attorney who originally appeared in detective fiction by Erle Stanley Gardner...
— as a circus clown
Clown
Clowns are comic performers stereotypically characterized by the grotesque image of the circus clown's colored wigs, stylistic makeup, outlandish costumes, unusually large footwear, and red nose, which evolved to project their actions to large audiences. Other less grotesque styles have also...
.
In the late 50s, Curtis was featured in all three of the only films produced by Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney
Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney
Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney was an American businessman, film producer, writer, and government official, as well as the owner of a leading stable of thoroughbred racehorses....
's C. V. Whitney Pictures; the first was The Searchers in 1956 with John Wayne, the second was The Missouri Traveler
The Missouri Traveler
The Missouri Traveler is a 1958 American coming-of-age period piece drama film directed by Jerry Hopper starring Brandon De Wilde and Lee Marvin. It is based on the novel by John Burress. The cinematography was by Technicolor developer Winton C. Hoch with harmonica and banjo score by Jack Marshall...
in 1958 with Brandon De Wilde
Brandon De Wilde
Andre Brandon deWilde was an American theatre and film actor. He was born into a theatrical family in Brooklyn. Debuting on Broadway at the age of 7, De Wilde became a national phenomenon by the time he completed his 492 performances for The Member of the Wedding and was considered a child...
and Lee Marvin
Lee Marvin
Lee Marvin was an American film actor. Known for his gravelly voice, white hair and 6' 2" stature, Marvin at first did supporting roles, mostly villains, soldiers and other hardboiled characters, but after winning an Academy Award for Best Actor for his dual roles in Cat Ballou , he landed more...
and the third was The Young Land
The Young Land
The Young Land is a 1959 American Western drama film directed by Ted Tetzlaff starring Patrick Wayne and Dennis Hopper. The cinematography was by Technicolor developer Winton C. Hoch and Henry Sharp. The film was distributed by Columbia Pictures Corporation.It is the third and final of only 3 films...
in 1959 with Patrick Wayne
Patrick Wayne
Patrick John Morrison, better known by his stage name Patrick Wayne , is an American actor, the second son of movie star John Wayne and his first wife, Josephine Alicia Saenz. He made over 40 films in his career, including nine with his father...
and Dennis Hopper
Dennis Hopper
Dennis Lee Hopper was an American actor, filmmaker and artist. As a young man, Hopper became interested in acting and eventually became a student of the Actors' Studio. He made his first television appearance in 1954 and appeared in two films featuring James Dean, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant...
.
Curtis also co-starred with Larry Pennell
Larry Pennell
Larry "Bud" Pennell , aka Alessandro Pennelli, is an American television and film actor.Born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, he is mainly a supporting actor, best known for his role as "Dash Riprock," the conceited, image-conscious, and macho Hollywood movie star courting "Elly May Clampett" in the...
in the 1961-1963 syndicated television series Ripcord
Ripcord (TV series)
Ripcord is an American syndicated television series that ran for 76 episodes from 1961 to 1963 about the exploits of a skydiving operation by the same name.-Overview:...
, 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
Parachuting
Parachuting, also known as skydiving, is the action of exiting an aircraft and returning to earth with the aid of a parachute. It may or may not involve a certain amount of free-fall, a time during which the parachute has not been deployed and the body gradually accelerates to terminal...
.
Gunsmoke
Curtis remains best known for his role as Festus, the scruffy, cantankerous, illiterate office and jail custodian in Gunsmoke. While Marshal Matt DillonMarshal Matt Dillon
Marshal Matt Dillon is a fictional character featured on both the radio and television versions of Gunsmoke. He serves as the U.S. Marshal of Dodge City, Kansas who works to preserve law and order in the western frontier of the 1870s. The character was created by writer John Meston, who...
had a total of five helpers over two decades, Festus held the role the longest (eleven years), 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
Carroll O'Connor
John Carroll O'Connor best known as Carroll O'Connor, was an American actor, producer and director whose television career spanned four decades...
was a guest-star; years later Curtis guest-starred as a retired police detective on O'Connor's NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
program In the Heat of the Night
In the Heat of the Night (TV series)
In the Heat of the Night is a television series based on the motion picture and novel of the same name. It was broadcast on NBC from 1988 until 1992, and then on CBS until 1995...
. He voiced Nutsy the vulture in Disney's 1973 animated film Robin Hood
Robin Hood (1973 film)
Robin Hood is an 1973 American animated film produced by the Walt Disney Productions, first released in the United States on November 8, 1973...
. In 1983 he returned to television in the short-lived western series The Yellow Rose
The Yellow Rose
The Yellow Rose is an American television series. It was broadcast on the NBC network during the 1983-1984 season. It was produced by Paul Freeman....
.
Last years
In 1981, Curtis was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage MuseumNational Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum
The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum is a museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, with more than 28,000 Western and American Indian art works and artifacts. The facility also has the world's most extensive collection of American rodeo, photographs, barbed wire, saddlery, and early rodeo trophies...
in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Oklahoma City is the capital and the largest city in the state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, the city ranks 31st among United States cities in population. The city's population, from the 2010 census, was 579,999, with a metro-area population of 1,252,987 . In 2010, the Oklahoma...
.
Curtis' last acting role was as the aging cattle rancher "Seaborn Tay" in the television production Conagher
Conagher
Conagher is a 1991 Turner Network Television western film based on a Louis L’Amour novel of the same name, starring Sam Elliott as Conn Conagher, an honest, hardworking cowboy who learns that his fellow ranch hands plan to steal the boss's cattle. Katharine Ross, Elliott’s wife since 1984, stars...
(1991), by western author Louis L'Amour
Louis L'Amour
Louis Dearborn L'Amour was an American author. His books consisted primarily of Western fiction novels , however he also wrote historical fiction , science fiction , nonfiction , as well as poetry and short-story collections. Many of his stories were made into movies...
. Sam Elliott
Sam Elliott
Samuel Pack "Sam" Elliott is an American actor. His rangy physique, thick horseshoe moustache, and deep, resonant voice match the iconic image of a cowboy or rancher, and he has often been cast in such roles.-Early life:Sam Elliott was born in Sacramento, California, to a physical training...
starred in the lead role, and Curtis' Gunsmoke costar Buck Taylor
Buck Taylor
Walter Clarence "Buck" Taylor, III is an American actor and water color artist best known for his role as gunsmith-turned-deputy Newly O'Brien in 113 episodes during the last eight seasons of CBS's Gunsmoke television series . In recent years, he has painted the portrait of his friend and Gunsmoke...
(Newly O'Brien) played a bad man in the same film. Buck Taylor's father, Dub Taylor
Dub Taylor
Walter Clarence Taylor, Jr. , better known as Dub Taylor, was an American actor who worked extensively in Westerns, but also in comedy from the 1940s into the 1990s.-Early life:...
, 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
Roger Ewing
Roger Ewing is a former actor originally from Los Angeles, California. He is best remembered for his characterization of part-time deputy marshal Clayton Thaddeus "Thad" Greenwood in thirty-six episodes of the long-running CBS western television series Gunsmoke with James Arness...
.
A statue of Ken Curtis as Festus can be found at 430 Pollasky Avenue, Clovis, CA, in front of the Educational Employees Credit Union. Ken Curtis was a resident of Clovis
Clovis, California
Clovis is a city in Fresno County, California, United States, northeast of Fresno. The population is estimated to be 97,218 as of September, 2011. Clovis is located northeast of downtown Fresno, at an elevation of 361 feet .-History:...
.
Death
Curtis died in his sleep of natural causes in FresnoClovis, California
Clovis is a city in Fresno County, California, United States, northeast of Fresno. The population is estimated to be 97,218 as of September, 2011. Clovis is located northeast of downtown Fresno, at an elevation of 361 feet .-History:...
, California. He was cremated
Cremation
Cremation is the process of reducing bodies to basic chemical compounds such as gasses and bone fragments. This is accomplished through high-temperature burning, vaporization and oxidation....
, and his ashes were scattered in the Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
flatlands.