REEL MEMORIES NO. 192

REEL MEMORIES NO. 192

Curtis Wain Gates

by

William V. Reynolds

Considering the kind of scruffy, backwoods, uneducated, deep South hillbilly types he played,

most of us would probably be surprised to hear that Curtis Wain Gates was not born in the South.

He was born in Las Animas, Colorado, a small town where his father served as town sheriff. The

family lived over the jail and Curtis’s mother cooked for the prisoners.

Curtis was born July 2, 1916 to Dan Gates and Nellie Sneed Gates. He grew up and played

quarterback for his local high school team. Growing up in a musical family (his father played the

fiddle and two of his brothers were singers) encouraged him to become a singer and musician. In

1935 he went to college in Colorado Springs to study medicine, but his interest in music involved

him in several college musical events.

Surprisingly enough, he got his start as a singer in the big band era. Tommy Dorsey hired him as

a backup singer for Frank Sinatra. Later he joined the singing group Sons of the Pioneers. While

making a guest appearance on Johnny Mercer’s radio program, he sang Jo Stafford’s song

“Tumbling Tumbleweeds.” As a result of this appearance, Columbia Pictures signed him for a

series of musical Westerns.

The first of these was Cowboy Canteen (1944). In many of these he not only acted but sang for

the soundtrack. In 1950 he joined his father-in-law, John Ford, and John Wayne in the making of

Rio Grande (1950). He would later appear with John Wayne in The Quiet Man (1952), The

Wings of Eagles (1957), The Searchers (1956), The Horse Soldiers (1959), The Alamo

(1960) and How the West Was Won (1962). Curtis would also work with John Ford in Two

Rode Together (1961), and Cheyenne Autumn (1964).

Curtis made guest appearances on such television programs as Rawhide, Wagon Train, Have

Gun-Will Travel, Death Valley Days, The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, and How the West

Was Won. But his big break came in the late 1960s when he joined the cast of Gunsmoke with

James Arness, Amanda Blake, and Milburn Stone. He appeared in more than 300 episodes as

Festus Haggen. According to Curtis, Festus was based on a character he knew while growing up,

Cedar Jack. Curtis’s last film for television was the TV movie Conagher (1991).

For his work on Gunsmoke, Curtis was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of

the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1981. A statue of Curtis as Festus is

at the front entrance of the Fresno Educational Employees Credit Union.

Curtis passed away in 1991 in his sleep of natural causes. He was cremated and his ashes were

spread over the Colorado plains. Here’s a reel memories salute to Curtis Wain Gates, a.k.a. Ken

Curtis, a.k.a. Festus Haggen.

William V. Reynolds is the author of “Murder in the Okefenokee” available at The Curiosity

Shop in Murphy, Shenanigan’s Diner and Pat’s Country Kitchen in McCaysville; Parris

Pharmacy, The Book Nook and Ingles in Blue Ridge; and Book Nook in Blairsville.