Ken Curtis

In 1991 Curtis died in his sleep of natural causes in Fresno, California. He is married and has a passion for outdoor activities, including flying aeroplanes, surfing and deep-sea diving. 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. He won a BAFTA for his acting in the adverts. 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 between 1997 and 1999 Nicholas Lyndhurst was the public face of the stationery chain store WH Smith, starring as all four members of a family in their adverts. 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. At around the same time, he was also the face and voice on the TV and radio commercials for the telecommunications chain People's Phone.

Festus is patterned after “Cedar Jack”, a man from Ken’s Las Animas childhood. In 1993 he played the lead character of Gary Sparrow in science fiction sitcom Goodnight Sweetheart. Ken is best known for his long-running role as Festus Hagen, the scrofulous, cantankerous deputy in the TV series Gunsmoke. During this period, Lyndhurst also starred in ITV sitcoms The Two Of Us and The Piglet Files, as well as a number of stage shows. 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. This programme started as a small comedy in 1981 and rapidly grew in popularity until it reached its peak in 1996 with its Christmas Day episode gaining the largest audience ever obtained by a fictional TV show in the UK. Curtis also teamed up with Ford, along with Henry Fonda, James Cagney, Jack Lemmon, and William Powell in the comedy Navy classic Mister Roberts. He then played the teenage son of lag Fletch in Going Straight before achieving stardom in the series Only Fools and Horses in which he played Rodney Trotter, the younger brother of the main character Del Boy.

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. A child student at Corona Stage Academy, he appeared in a succession of commercials and children's films in the early 1970s, and first gained national recognition at the age of seventeen through the sitcom (Adam) Butterflies. 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". Nicholas Lyndhurst (born April 21, 1961) is a British actor born in Emsworth, Hampshire. The family lived above the jail and his mother, Nellie (Sneed) Gates, cooked for the prisoners. Gunbus. Dan Gates, his father, was the sheriff in Las Animas. Endless Nights.

Curtis Wain Gates and raised in Las Animas, Colorado). Bullshot. (b. Bequest to the Nation. Ken Curtis (July 2, 1916 - April 29, 1991), Singer-Actor, best known as "Festus" of Gunsmoke fame. Wilderness Challenge. The Two Of Us.

To Serve Them All My Days. Stalag Luft. Spearhead. The Prince and the Pauper.

The Piglet Files. Peter Pan. Our Show. Only Fools and Horses.

Losing Her. The Lenny Henry Show. The Kenny Everett Christmas Show. Heidi.

Gulliver's Travels. Goodnight Sweetheart. Going Straight. Father's Day.

Fairies. The Dick Emery Show. David Copperfield. The Burt Bacharach Show.

Anne of Avonlea.