Ken Curtis

Ken Curtis (born July 2, 1916; died April 29, 1991), Singer-Actor, best known as "Festus" of Gunsmoke fame.

Related Topics:
July 2 - 1916 - April 29 - 1991 - Gunsmoke

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Born Curtis Wain Gates and raised in Las Animas, Colorado, his father, Dan Gates, was the sheriff in Las Animas. The family lived above the jail and his mother, Nellie (Sneed) Gates, cooked for the prisoners.

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Ken Curtis, who was a singer before he moved into acting, sang with the Sons of the Pioneers and Tommy Dorsey's band. Movie audiences will hear his voice from the introduction of the western standard: "Tumbling Tumbleweeds".

Related Topics:
Sons of the Pioneers - Tommy Dorsey

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This son-in-law of director John Ford teamed up with father-in-law and also John Wayne in Rio Grande, The Quiet Man, The Wings of Eagles, The Searchers, The Horse Soldiers, and How The West Was Won. Curtis also teamed up with Ford, along with Henry Fonda, James Cagney, Jack Lemmon, and William Powell in the comedy Navy classic Mister Roberts. In the 1950's Curtis even tried his hand at producing with two extremely low-budget monster films, The Killer Shrews and The Giant Gila Monster.

Related Topics:
John Ford - John Wayne - Rio Grande - The Quiet Man - The Wings of Eagles - The Searchers - The Horse Soldiers - How The West Was Won - Henry Fonda - James Cagney - Jack Lemmon - William Powell - Mister Roberts

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Ken is best known for his long-running role as Festus Hagen, the scrofulous, cantankerous deputy in the TV series Gunsmoke. Festus is patterned after "Cedar Jack", a man from Curtis' Las Animas childhood. Cedar Jack, who lived about 40 miles out of town in the hills and made a living cutting cedar fence posts, gave Curtis plenty of opportunity to observe him when Jack would come to Las Animas where he would usually end up drunk and in jail.

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In 1981, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Related Topics:
Western Performers Hall of Fame - National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum - Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

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His last role was as cattle rancher "Seaborn Tay" in the TV production Conagher (1991), by famed Western author Louis L'Amour, starring Sam Elliot in the lead role.

Related Topics:
Louis L'Amour - Sam Elliot

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In 1991 Curtis died in his sleep of natural causes in Fresno, California.

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