Ken Curtis Played 6 Gunsmoke Characters Who Weren’t Festus

Did you know that actor Ken Curtis played seven different characters on Gunsmoke? Besides Festus, which one of Ken Curtis's Gunsmoke roles do you best remember?

▬Contents of this video▬
00:00 - Intro
00:34 - Phil Jacks
01:10 - Briscoe
01:33 - Jesse
01:54 - Scout
02:14 - Kyle Kelly
02:40 - Frank Eaton
03:02 - Curtis Based Festus Off Someone From His Childhood
04:20 - Ken Curtis Found Success In Country Music
06:47 - Outro

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Most people know actor Ken Curtis for his role as Festus Haggen on the highly influential CBS western television series Gunsmoke. Festus was Marshall Matt Dillon's right-hand man in Dodge City and was basically the series' heart and soul. But unless you're a Gunsmoke trivia junkie, you might not have known that Ken Curtis actually played several other characters on the iconic show – seven to be precise.

Festus was actually the fifth of seven characters that Ken Curtis played on the show. Before he began his career as an actor, Curtis worked as both a big band and country music singer. He made his first guest appearances on Westerns after being signed to Paramount Pictures in 1945.

His first screen roles saw him playing singing cowboys in a series of musical Westerns with an American quartet known as the Hoosier Hot Shots. Since Curtis was the son-in-law of film director John Ford, in 1950, he got to star alongside John Wayne in Rio Grande. For the next decade or so, Curtis made frequent appearances in films such as 1956s The Searchers, 1959s The Young Land, and 1960s The Alamo.

On television, Curtis guest-starred on shows like Have Gun, Will Travel, Death Valley Days, and Perry Mason. Initially, Gunsmoke was presented as a radio drama but banking upon its popularity, the series was adapted into a television program in 1965. While Marshall Matt Dillon had a total of five deputies over the show's two-decade run, Ken Curtis's Festus Haggen held the role the longest – appearing in 304 episodes over a span of 11 years. In this video, we'll be taking a closer look at all six characters that Ken Curtis played on Gunsmoke that weren't Festus.

Ken Curtis Played 6 Gunsmoke Characters Who Weren’t Festus