Considering the kind of scruffy, backwoods, uneducated, Deep-South hillbilly types he played, many people would not find it hard to believe that Ken Curtis was born and raised in Las Animas, Colorado, the son of the town sheriff. What they would find hard to believe is that he began his show business career as a singer in the big-band era, and was a vocalist in the legendary Tommy Dorsey orchestra. He entered films in the late 1940s at the tail end of the singing cowboy period in a series of low-budget westerns for Columbia Pictures. When that genre died out he turned to straight dramatic and comedy parts, and became a regular in the films of director John Ford (who was his father-in-law). He ventured into film production in the 1950s with two extremely low-budget monster films, The Killer Shrews and The Giant Gila Monster, but he is best known for his long-running role as Festus Hagen, the scrofulous, cantankerous deputy in the long-running TV series Gunsmoke.


Grew up in Las Animas, Colorado, where his father, Dan Gates, was sheriff. As was the custom at the time, they lived above the jail and his mother, Nellie (Sneed) Gates, cooked for the prisoners. He once said he patterned "Festus" after a local character known as Cedar Jack, who lived about 40 miles out in the cedar hills and made a living cutting cedar fence posts for farmers and ranchers. When he came to Las Animas, he usually ended up drunk and in jail. This gave Curtis plenty of opportunity to observe him. Before acting career, sang with Tommy Dorsey's band and the Sons of the Pioneers. Inducted (as a cast member of "Gunsmoke" (1955)) into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1981. Although his character, Festus Haggen, was introduced to "Gunsmoke" (1955) in an episode called "Us Haggens," in which he arrived in Dodge City to avenge the death of his twin brother, the fact that Festus had a twin was never again mentioned on the show. Refused an offer to appear as Festus Haggen in the movie Gunsmoke: Return to Dodge (1987) (TV), which reunited James Arness, Amanda Blake, Buck Taylor and Fran Ryan from the original series. Money was the issue. Producer John Mantley, interviewed for TV Guide when the movie aired, said Curtis had demanded double what Blake got; other sources say Mantley was at fault in offering Curtis an insultingly low salary (not specified in either account). Dick Haymes replaced Frank Sinatra as male vocalist with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. Sinatra himself in his final appearance with Dorsey introduced his replacement during a September 2, 1942, broadcast. Came from a musical family -- his father played the fiddle, his mother the pump organ, brother Chester the banjo, and another brother Carl sang. His stage name was changed to the easier-sounding "Ken Curtis" when he temporarily replaced Frank Sinatra in Tommy Dorsey's band in 1941.