Ken Curtis (born Curtis Wain Gates; July 2, 1916 – April 28, 1991) was an American actor and singer best known for his role as Festus Haggen on the Western television series Gunsmoke.
Early years
Born on July 2, 1916 as the youngest of three boys in Lamar in Prowers County in southeastern Colorado, Curtis lived his first 10 years on a ranch on Muddy Creek in eastern Bent County. In 1926, the family moved to Las Animas, the county seat of Bent County, so that his father, Dan Sullivan Gates, could run for sheriff. The campaign was successful, and Gates served from 1926 to 1931 as Bent County sheriff.
Curtis was the quarterback of his Bent County High School football team and played clarinet in the school band. He graduated in 1935. During World War II, Curtis served in the U.S. Army from 1943 to 1945.
Animation · Family
With King Richard off to the Crusades, Prince John and his slithering minion, Sir Hiss, set about taxing Nottingham's citizens with support from the corrupt sheriff - and staunch opposition by the wily Robin Hood and his band of merry men.
7.31973
Western
As a Civil War veteran spends years searching for a young niece captured by Indians, his motivation becomes increasingly questionable.
7.71956
Romance · Comedy
An American man returns to the village of his birth in Ireland, where he finds love and conflict.
7.31952
Western
The epic tale of the development of the American West from the 1830s through the Civil War to the end of the century, as seen through the eyes of one pioneer family.
7.01962
Animation · Family
With King Richard off to the Crusades, Prince John and his slithering minion, Sir Hiss, set about taxing Nottingham's citizens with support from the corrupt sheriff - and staunch opposition by the wily Robin Hood and his band of merry men.
7.31973
Western
As a Civil War veteran spends years searching for a young niece captured by Indians, his motivation becomes increasingly questionable.
7.71956
Romance · Comedy
An American man returns to the village of his birth in Ireland, where he finds love and conflict.
7.31952
Western
The epic tale of the development of the American West from the 1830s through the Civil War to the end of the century, as seen through the eyes of one pioneer family.
7.01962
War · Adventure
The legendary true story of a small band of soldiers who sacrificed their lives in hopeless combat against a massive army in order to prevent a tyrant from smashing the new Republic of Texas.
7.11960
Western
Lt. Col. Kirby Yorke is posted on the Texas frontier to defend settlers against depredations of marauding Apaches. Col. Yorke is under considerable stress by a serious shortage of troops of his command. Tension is added when Yorke's son (whom he hasn't seen in fifteen years), Trooper Jeff Yorke, is one of 18 recruits sent to the regiment.
6.81950
Western · War
A Union Cavalry outfit is sent behind confederate lines in strength to destroy a rail supply center. Along with them is sent a doctor who causes instant antipathy between him and the commander. The secret plan for the mission is overheard by a southern belle who must be taken along to assure her silence.
6.91959
Comedy · Drama
Mr. Roberts is a Navy officer who's yearning for battle but is stuck in the backwaters of World War II on a non-commissioned ship run by the bullying Captain Morton.
7.01955
Western
Two tough westerners bring home a group of settlers who have spent years as Comanche hostages.
6.41961
Western
A reluctant cavalry Captain must track a defiant tribe of migrating Cheyenne.
6.71964
Action & Adventure · Sci-Fi & Fantasy
As part of a deal with an intelligence agency to look for his missing brother, a renegade pilot goes on missions with an advanced battle helicopter.
7.61984
Mystery · Drama
The cases of master criminal defense attorney Perry Mason and his staff who handled the most difficult of cases in the aid of the innocent.
7.71957
Western · Action & Adventure
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. The central character is lawman Marshal Matt Dillon, played by William Conrad on radio and James Arness on television.
6.71955
Western · Drama
The tale of trail boss Gil Favor and his trusty foreman Rowdy Yates as they drives cattle across the old west. Along the way they meet up with adventure and drama.
7.31959
Western · Action & Adventure
Have Gun – Will Travel is an American Western television series that aired on CBS from 1957 through 1963. It was rated number three or number four in the Nielsen ratings every year of its first four seasons. It was one of the few television shows to spawn a successful radio version. The radio series debuted November 23, 1958. The television show is presently shown on the Encore-Western channel. Have Gun – Will Travel was created by Sam Rolfe and Herb Meadow and produced by Frank Pierson, Don Ingalls, Robert Sparks, and Julian Claman. There were 225 episodes of the TV series, 24 written by Gene Roddenberry. Other contributors included Bruce Geller, Harry Julian Fink, Don Brinkley and Irving Wallace. Andrew McLaglen directed 101 episodes and 19 were directed by series star Richard Boone.
7.31957
Western · Drama
The Macahans, a family from Virginia headed by Zeb Macahan, travel across the country to pioneer a new land and a new home in the American West.
7.01977
Western
Lt. Col. Kirby Yorke is posted on the Texas frontier to defend settlers against depredations of marauding Apaches. Col. Yorke is under considerable stress by a serious shortage of troops of his command. Tension is added when Yorke's son (whom he hasn't seen in fifteen years), Trooper Jeff Yorke, is one of 18 recruits sent to the regiment.
6.81950
Western · War
A Union Cavalry outfit is sent behind confederate lines in strength to destroy a rail supply center. Along with them is sent a doctor who causes instant antipathy between him and the commander. The secret plan for the mission is overheard by a southern belle who must be taken along to assure her silence.
6.91959
Horror · Sci-Fi
Trapped on a remote island by a hurricane, a group discover a doctor has been experimenting on creating half sized humans. Unfortunately, his experiments have also created giant shrews, who when they have run out of small animals to eat, turn on the humans.
4.51959
Drama · War
The story of Frank W. "Spig" Wead - a Navy-flyer turned screenwriter.
6.31957
Drama
In a changing world where television has become the main source of information, Adam Caulfield, a young sports journalist, witnesses how his uncle, Frank Skeffington, a veteran and honest politician, mayor of a New England town, tries to be reelected while bankers and captains of industry conspire in the shadows to place a weak and manageable candidate in the city hall.
7.21958
Horror · Sci-Fi
A small town in Texas finds itself under attack from a hungry, fifty-foot-long gila monster. No longer content to forage in the desert, the giant lizard begins chomping on motorists and train passengers before descending upon the town itself. Only Chase Winstead, a quick-thinking mechanic, can save the town from being wiped out.
4.21959
Comedy · Drama
The life story of a salt-of-the-earth Irish immigrant, who becomes an Army Noncommissioned Officer and spends his 50 year career at the United States Military Academy at West Point. This includes his job-related experiences as well as his family life and the relationships he develops with young cadets with whom he befriends. Based on the life of a real person.
7.01955
TV Movie · Western
Mrs. Evie Teale is struggling to stay alive while raising her two children alone on a remote homestead. Conn Conagher is an honest, hardworking cowboy. Their lives are intertwined as they fight the elements, indians, outlaws, and loneliness.
6.71991
Action · Western
Captain Hayes of the mighty law enforcement squad named the Texas Rangers reached the pinnacle of his career when he captured the notorious John Henry, an outlaw cowboy, and put him behind bars. Twenty years later, upon his release, Henry is older but unrepentant. Within six hours after leaving his jail cell, he evens the score with Hayes by holding up the Bank of Texas for $20,000 in gold. Hayes, in his fury, gets himself out of retirement to take up the chase once more.
5.21988
Action · Thriller
Can a couple keep important secrets from Communist spies?
6.61956
Action · Western
Seeking a new place to call home, former Confederate soldier Ben Lassiter (Victor Mature) and his daughter meet Beth (Elaine Stewart), whose fiancé is a Union soldier. Lassiter falls for Beth, and when Indians attack, they head to a cavalry camp where Lassiter must battle the Indians as well as Beth's fiancé.
6.21959
Western
An American gunslinger kills a Mexican man in California immediately after the Mexican-American war. The killer is arrested and put on trial for murder with the Hispanic population waiting to learn of American justice.
6.81959
Drama · Family
Byron Turner, a 15-year-old runaway from the Eatondale Orphan Asylum, receives a ride into the rural Missouri town of Delphi with rich land-owner Tobias Brown.
6.51958
Drama
A young man with only one hand gets a job at a timber camp and falls for his boss's daughter.
5.31960
Drama
A spinster finally finds the right man when she returns to her alma mater after 15 years for a class reunion.
6.21957
Western
A prospector is looking for a lost gold mine and finds aid in his search through the efforts of his friend, Stormcloud, whom he has aided in the past. Stormcloud gives the prospector's son a map leading to the mine in repayment for his past kindness. When a claim jumper learns about the map, he targets the prospector and his son in order to get the treasure.
6.01949
Western
A young Texas Man who saw his father get killed by a group of bandits, decides years later to go to work for the Pony Express. But he is not just working around the country to deliver mail, he is actually finding the bandits who murdered his father.
6.01976
War · Drama
Story of how the Coast Guard trained to help win World War II.
6.71951
Adventure · Drama
Patchwork movie edited from episodes from the TV series The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams (1977).
6.01981
Western · Drama
The series initially starred veteran movie supporting actor Ward Bond as the wagon master, later replaced upon his death by John McIntire, and Robert Horton as the scout, subsequently replaced by lookalike Robert Fuller a year after Horton had decided to leave the series. The series was inspired by the 1950 film Wagon Master directed by John Ford and starring Ben Johnson, Harry Carey Jr. and Ward Bond, and harkens back to the early widescreen wagon train epic The Big Trail starring John Wayne and featuring Bond in his first major screen appearance playing a supporting role. Horton's buckskin outfit as the scout in the first season of the television series resembles Wayne's, who also played the wagon train's scout in the earlier film.
6.61957
Western · Action & Adventure
An innocent fugitive from the law lives in the wilderness with a grizzly bear companion and helps passers-by in the forest.
7.01977
Drama
Tony Petrocelli is an Italian-American Harvard-educated lawyer who gave up the big money and frenetic pace of major-metropolitan life to practice in a sleepy city in the American Southwest. He and wife Maggie live in a trailer in the country while waiting for their new house to be built, and travel around in a beat-up old pickup truck. For a quiet rural area, Petrocelli seems to have no trouble running into his share of murderers to defend.
7.21974
Drama · Crime
Private detective Dan Tanna drives around the streets of Las Vegas in a red 1957 Ford Thunderbird solving crimes and making Las Vegas a better place for residents and tourists alike.
6.91978
Action & Adventure · Drama
Sea Hunt is an American adventure television series that aired in syndication from 1958 to 1961 and was popular in syndication for decades afterwards. The series originally aired for four seasons, with 155 episodes produced. It stars Lloyd Bridges as ex-Navy frogman Mike Nelson, and was produced by Ivan Tors.
6.71958
Drama
Born free in the American West, Black Beauty is a horse rounded up and brought to Birtwick Stables, where she meets spirited teenager Jo Green. The two forge a bond that carries Beauty through the different chapters, challenges and adventures.
7.01978
Soap · Drama
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. The series was at least partly inspired by the more coltish elements of the soap opera Dallas, and dealt with the intrigues of the Texas-based ranch-owning Champion family. The show's cast included Sam Elliott, David Soul, Edward Albert, Cybill Shepherd, Chuck Connors, Noah Beery, Jr., Ken Curtis, Robin Wright and Jane Russell. The Yellow Rose was canceled after one season of twenty-two episodes. In the summer of 1990, the series was rerun again on NBC along with the short-lived Bret Maverick starring James Garner.
7.61983
