Ken Curtis

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Ken Curtis (left) and Milburn Stone in a scene from Colts Smoking .

Ken Curtis (born July 2, 1916 in Lamar , Colorado , † April 28, 1991 in Clovis , California , actually Curtis Wain Gates ) was an American actor, producer and country singer.

Life

Curtis Wain Gates grew up in Las Animas near Lamar in southeast Colorado . His father Dan Gates was the local sheriff and his family lived upstairs in the prison, where his mother, Nellie Sneed Gates, prepared meals for its inmates.

Curtis was initially a singer, a. a. with Shep Fields and the country formation Sons of the Pioneers , with whom he also appeared in films by the singing cowboys Roy Rogers and Gene Autry and found a taste for acting. Curtis was later seen in seven films alone at the side of the Hollywood legend John Wayne and also played with other famous stars such as Henry Fonda , James Cagney , William Powell and Jack Lemmon .

In Germany Curtis was mainly known as the curious assistant sheriff Festus Haggen in the American western television series Rauchende Colts ( Gunsmoke ) at the side of Sheriff Matt Dillon ( James Arness ), a character he played from 1964 to 1975 and thus was the third longest on the series (after leading actor James Arness and Milburn Stone as Doc Adams). In the German version of the series, the actor Gerd Duwner spoke the Festus with an unmistakable falsetto voice .

The first episode that Curtis starred in was called Us Haggens . Festus comes to the city of Dodge City to avenge the death of his twin brother Fergus Haggen (who was never mentioned again). Curtis played a double role in the episode Alias ​​Festus Haggen , both as Festus and as a killer who looks like him and whom he has to convict in order not to be convicted for his acts.

Even before that time, Curtis was a well-known series star in Germany. From 1963 he could be seen in the evening program of ARD in 48 episodes of the very popular adventure series Jump Out of the Clouds (Ripcord) together with his colleague Larry Pennell as skydiver Jim Buckley. Since he was shown here without a beard, in contrast to Smoking Colts and was dubbed by Gerd Martienzen , the two characters Jim Buckley and Festus Haggen hardly resembled each other in appearance.

Curtis has guest-starred in many other television series, including Perry Mason , Wagon Train , A Thousand Miles of Dust ( Rawhide ), Underwater Adventures ( Sea Hunt ), Have Gun - Will Travel , Petrocelli , Vegas ( Vega $ ) and Airwolf .

Curtis worked twice as a producer, in the low-budget films The Night of the Eerie Beasts ( The Killer Shrews ), in which he also took a role, and in The Giant Gila Monster (both 1959).

Curtis was married to Barbara Ford, daughter of director John Ford , from 1952 to 1964 . In 1981 he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City , Oklahoma .

In 1991, Ken Curtis died of a heart attack at the age of 74 on his ranch in Clovis , Fresno County, California . After the cremation , the ashes were scattered across the Colorado Flatlands.

Known songs

  • Tumbling Tumbleweeds

Some songs that were published by him in German:

  • Cowboy broken
  • Country music
  • One beer, one drink
  • Hey deputy
  • The stranger

Filmography (selection)

literature

Web links

Commons : Ken Curtis  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ eviltwin.velvetsofa.com: biography of Ken Curtis (English)
personal data
SURNAME Curtis, Ken
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gates, Curtis Wain (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American actor and country singer
DATE OF BIRTH July 2, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Lamar , Colorado
DATE OF DEATH April 28, 1991
Place of death Clovis , California