Ken Curtis

In 1991 Curtis died in his sleep of natural causes in Fresno, California. He is married with two children. 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 currently lives in New York City. Inducted (as a cast member of "Gunsmoke") into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1981. Alan is a graduate of the University of Illinois. 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. His TV roles include Stewart Bondek, a humorously perverted member of the mayor's staff on the former ABC sitcom Spin City.

Festus is patterned after “Cedar Jack”, a man from Ken’s Las Animas childhood. His most recent work in film was as Steve Martin's neighbor in Cheaper by the Dozen. Ken is best known for his long-running role as Festus Hagen, the scrofulous, cantankerous deputy in the TV series Gunsmoke. He was also Captain John Harriman of USS Enterprise NCC-1701-B in Star Trek: Generations, and a passenger on the ill-fated bus in the 1994 classic Speed. 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. Ruck is perhaps best known for his role as Cameron Frye, Ferris Bueller's hypochondriac best friend in John Hughes' Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Curtis also teamed up with Ford, along with Henry Fonda, James Cagney, Jack Lemmon, and William Powell in the comedy Navy classic Mister Roberts. Alan Ruck (July 1, 1956-) is an American actor with experience in both television and movies.

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. 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.