Debra Winger

She has been married to actors Timothy Hutton and Arliss Howard. In 1991 Curtis died in his sleep of natural causes in Fresno, California. Other films include Made in Heaven, Everybody Wins, The Sheltering Sky, Leap of Faith, Black Widow, Wilder Napalm and A Dangerous Woman. 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. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Terms of Endearment in 1984 and Best Actress for Shadowlands in 1993. Inducted (as a cast member of "Gunsmoke") into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1981. In 1982 she starred opposite Richard Gere in An Officer and a Gentleman, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Cedar Jack, who lived about 40 miles out of town in the hills, 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.

She got her first starring role in Urban Cowboy in 1980, opposite John Travolta. Festus is patterned after “Cedar Jack”, a man from Ken’s Las Animas childhood. Her first acting role was as Princess Diana's younger sister Drusilla (Wonder Girl) in the Wonder Woman television series. Ken is best known for his long-running role as Festus Hagen, the scrofulous, cantankerous deputy in the TV series Gunsmoke. With time on her hands to think about her life, she decided that, if she recovered, she would move to California and become an actress. 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. After returning to the United States, she was involved in an automobile accident which left her temporarily paralyzed and blind in one eye. Curtis also teamed up with Ford, along with Henry Fonda, James Cagney, Jack Lemmon, and William Powell in the comedy Navy classic Mister Roberts.

Born in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, she spent several years in Israel, and served in the Israeli Armed Forces. 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. Debra Winger (born May 16, 1955) is an American actress. 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". The family lived above the jail and his mother, Nellie (Sneed) Gates, cooked for the prisoners. Dan Gates, his father, was the sheriff in Las Animas.

Curtis Wain Gates and raised in Las Animas, Colorado). (b. Ken Curtis (July 2, 1916 - April 29, 1991), Singer-Actor, best known as "Festus" of Gunsmoke fame.