--- name: "Ken Curtis" canonical: "https://film.one/person/ken-curtis" roles: ["Actor"] born: "2 July 1916" died: "28 April 1991" reviewed_on_fi1m: 4 average_fi1m_score: 63 average_as: "actor" average_over: 2 updated: "2026-09-20T04:08:13.847063+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Ken Curtis Actor. Born 2 July 1916 in Lamar, Colorado, USA. Died 28 April 1991. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 2 July 1916, Lamar, Colorado, USA - **Died:** 28 April 1991 - **Active:** 1955–1960 - **Also known as:** کن کورتیس - **Titles on Fi1m:** 4: 2 acting, 2 other - **Average Fi1m score:** 63, as actor, over 2 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 1950s 77 (2), 1960s 56 (2) - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Curtis, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q949696, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0193411/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/30554 ## Streaming the US now - **Pluto TV:** [*The Alamo*](https://film.one/film/the-alamo.md) (50) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Ken Curtis > A big-band singer who found his real instrument in a borrowed drawl. In John Ford's Westerns he was the comic hand at the edge of the frame; as Festus Haggen on *Gunsmoke* he made the same man worth eleven years of watching. The voice came first, and it was not the one he started with. Ken Curtis sang with Tommy Dorsey's band in the early 1940s, fronted Columbia's low-budget singing-cowboy Westerns from 1945, and later joined the Sons of the Pioneers; the singer can be heard in *Rio Grande* (1950). None of it made him a star. What did was a joke. On the set of *The Searchers* (1956) he was fooling about in what he called a dry-land dialect, a slow rural drawl, and John Ford was listening. "He said, 'How would you say that in dry-land?' I did it for him, and he said 'Play it that way.'" Charlie McCorry was played that way, and so, in the end, was most of what followed. Ford kept him close. Eight films together, six with John Wayne, most of them small parts and some uncredited: the sailor, the hired hand, the man with something wry to say before the camera moves on. The two we have reviewed show the limits of that. In *Mister Roberts* (1955) he is Dolan, one of the crew on a cargo ship the war forgot, and the film belongs to four leads who could carry anything. In *The Alamo* (1960) he is Captain Almeron Dickinson, and the film belongs to Wayne's speeches. We went back through *The Alamo* looking for him and lost him among the hats more than once. That is not a complaint about Curtis. It is what the part was. The screen that fitted him was the smaller one. From 1964 to 1975 he played Festus Haggen on *Gunsmoke*, a scruffy, cantankerous deputy who, by Curtis's own account, did things on his own instead of trailing along behind the marshal. The dry-land voice, tried out to amuse a film crew, became the part he is remembered for. He lent it to Nutsy in Disney's *Robin Hood* (1973) as well, which tells you how far a single sound had carried him. What he did well is plain enough: comic timing in a Western, a rural manner that read as a person rather than a turn. The nearest thing to a criticism anyone has made is that the leading-man years in cheap 1940s Westerns went nowhere, and on the evidence they went nowhere because he was not yet doing the thing he was good at. He was a supporting player who found his lead on television, late, and stayed with it. Our two reviews will not show you much of him. The Ford film we have not written up will, and so will any hour of *Gunsmoke*. Listen for the voice; it was the whole act. ## Biography Ken Curtis (1916–1991) was an American actor and singer. He played Dolan in the 1955 film *Mister Roberts*. He is best known for portraying Festus Haggen in the television series *Gunsmoke* from 1964 to 1975. Curtis appeared in several films directed by John Ford, including *The Searchers* (1956) as Charlie McCorry, *The Quiet Man* (1952), *The Horse Soldiers* (1959) and *How the West Was Won* (1962). Other credits include *The Alamo* (1960) and voice work as Nutsy in *Robin Hood* (1973). Before acting, Curtis sang with the Tommy Dorsey band and the Sons of the Pioneers. He served in the US Army during the Second World War and was married to Barbara Ford, daughter of director John Ford. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, rottentomatoes.com.* ## On Fi1m (4) ### Performed in (2) — the average rests on these - *The Alamo* (1960), Fi1m 50, as Capt. Almeron Dickinson — [page](https://film.one/film/the-alamo.md) - *Mister Roberts* (1955), Fi1m 76, as Dolan — [page](https://film.one/film/mister-roberts.md) ### Also credited (2) — thanks, archive footage, uncredited - *How the West Was Won* (1962), Fi1m 62, as Corporal Ben (uncredited) — [page](https://film.one/film/how-the-west-was-won.md) - *The Quiet Man* (1952), Fi1m 78, as Dermot Fahy (uncredited) — [page](https://film.one/film/the-quiet-man.md) ## Complete filmography (60) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Battleground* (2004), series, as Captain Howard W. Gilmore (archive footage) - *Conagher* (1991), as Seaborn Tay, Cattle Rancher - *Once Upon a Texas Train* (1988), as Kelly Sutton - *Airwolf* (1984), series, as Cecil Carnes Sr. - *Lost* (1983), as Wyatt Cosgrove - *The Yellow Rose* (1983), series, as Hoyt Coryell - *Legend of the Wild* (1981), Actor - *California Gold Rush* (1981), as Kentuck - *Once Upon a Starry Night* (1978), as Uncle Ned - *Vega$* (1978), series, Actor - *Black Beauty* (1978), series, as Howard Jakes - *Grizzly Adams* (1977), series, as Uncle Ned - *How the West Was Won* (1977), series, as Orville Gant - *Pony Express Rider* (1976), as Jed Richardson - *Petrocelli* (1974), series, Actor - *Robin Hood* (1973), as Nutsy - A Vulture (voice) - *Cheyenne Autumn* (1964), as Joe - *How the West Was Won* (1962), as Corporal Ben (uncredited) — Fi1m 62, [page](https://film.one/film/how-the-west-was-won.md) - *Ripcord* (1961), series, as Jim Buckley - *Two Rode Together* (1961), as Greeley Clegg - *The Alamo* (1960), as Capt. Almeron Dickinson — Fi1m 50, [page](https://film.one/film/the-alamo.md) - *Freckles* (1960), as Wessner - *My Dog, Buddy* (1960), as Dr. Lusk · Producer - *The Killer Shrews* (1959), as Jerry Farrell · Producer - *The Giant Gila Monster* (1959), Producer - *The Horse Soldiers* (1959), as Cpl. Wilkie - *Woman on the Run* (1959), Actor - *The Young Land* (1959), as Lee Hearn - *Escort West* (1959), as Trooper Burch - *Rawhide* (1959), series, as Vic Slade - *The Last Hurrah* (1958), as Monsignor Killian - *The Missouri Traveler* (1958), as Fred Mueller - *Sea Hunt* (1958), series, Actor - *Perry Mason* (1957), series, as Tim Durant - *Wagon Train* (1957), series, as Kyle Cleatus, Pappy Lightfoot - *Have Gun, Will Travel* (1957), series, as Monk, Skinner Monk, Curley, Tom Strickland - *Spring Reunion* (1957), as Al - *The Wings of Eagles* (1957), as John Dale Price - *The Growler Story* (1957), as Captain Howard W. Gilmore - *5 Steps to Danger* (1956), as FBI Agent Jim Anderson (uncredited) - *The Searchers* (1956), as Charlie McCorry - *Gunsmoke* (1955), series, as Festus - *Mister Roberts* (1955), as Dolan — Fi1m 76, [page](https://film.one/film/mister-roberts.md) - *The Long Gray Line* (1955), as Specialty (uncredited) - *The Quiet Man* (1952), as Dermot Fahy (uncredited) — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/film/the-quiet-man.md) - *Fighting Coast Guard* (1951), as Ken - Member Sons of the Pioneers - *Don Daredevil Rides Again* (1951), as Lee Hadley / Don Daredevil - *Rio Grande* (1950), as Donnelly - Regimental Singer (uncredited) - *Call of the Forest* (1949), as Bob Brand - *Stallion Canyon* (1949), as Curt Benson - *Riders of the Pony Express* (1949), as Tom Blake - *Over the Santa Fe Trail* (1947), as Curt Mason - *Lone Star Moonlight* (1946), as Curt Norton - *Singing on the Trail* (1946), as Curt Stanton - *Cowboy Blues* (1946), as Curt Durant - *That Texas Jamboree* (1946), as Curt Chambers - *Throw a Saddle on a Star* (1946), as Curt Walker - *Out of the Depths* (1945), as Buck Clayton - *Song of the Prairie* (1945), as Dan Tyler - *Rhythm Round-Up* (1945), as Jimmy Benson ## Gallery - ![Ken Curtis](https://film.one/media/person/1237523/gallery-3df2a28f329c.jpg) Ken Curtis — CBS photo by Gabor Rona, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Ken_Curtis.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Ken Curtis](https://film.one/media/person/1237523/gallery-9a2bac7d83dc.jpg) Ken Curtis — Image via TMDB - ![Ken Curtis](https://film.one/media/person/1237523/gallery-a81f625344d1.jpg) Ken Curtis — Image via TMDB - ![Ken Curtis](https://film.one/media/person/1237523/gallery-158cb89f60d2.jpg) Ken Curtis — Image via TMDB - ![Ken Curtis](https://film.one/media/person/1237523/gallery-482e36089977.jpg) Ken Curtis — Image via TMDB - ![Ken Curtis](https://film.one/media/person/1237523/gallery-46af917cceae.jpg) Ken Curtis — Image via TMDB --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/ken-curtis