Ken Curtis
Birthday: Born in 1916-07-02 in Lamar, Colorado, USA
Deathday: 1991-04-28
TV Credits
Airwolf
Character: Cecil Carnes Sr.
As part of a deal with an intelligence agency to look for his missing brother, a renegade pilot goes on missions with an advanced battle helicopter....
Gunsmoke
Character: Festus
Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West. The central character is lawman Marshal Matt Dillon, played by William Conrad on radio and James Arness on television....
How the West Was Won
Character:
The Macahans, a family from Virginia headed by Zeb Macahan, travel across the country to pioneer a new land and a new home in the American West....
Sea Hunt
Character:
Sea Hunt is an American adventure television series that aired in syndication from 1958 to 1961 and was popular in syndication for decades afterwards. The series originally aired for four seasons, with 155 episodes produced. It stars Lloyd Bridges as ex-Navy frogman Mike Nelson, and was produced by Ivan Tors....
Ripcord
Character: Jim Buckley
Ripcord is an American syndicated television series that ran for 76 episodes from 1961 to 1963 about the exploits of a skydiving operation by the same name....
Rawhide
Character: Vic Slade
The tale of trail boss Gil Favor and his trusty foreman Rowdy Yates as they drives cattle across the old west. Along the way they meet up with adventure and drama....
Vega$
Character:
Vega$ is an American detective television drama series that aired on ABC between 1978 and 1981. It was produced by Aaron Spelling. The series was filmed in its entirety in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is believed to be the first television series produced entirely in Las Vegas. The show stars Robert Urich as private detective Dan Tanna, who drove around the streets of Las Vegas in a red 1957 Ford Thunderbird solving crimes and making Las Vegas a better place for residents and tourists alike....
The Yellow Rose
Character: Hoyt Coryell
The Yellow Rose is an American television series. It was broadcast on the NBC network during the 1983-1984 season. It was produced by Paul Freeman. The series was at least partly inspired by the more coltish elements of the soap opera Dallas, and dealt with the intrigues of the Texas-based ranch-owning Champion family. The show's cast included Sam Elliott, David Soul, Edward Albert, Cybill Shepherd, Chuck Connors, Noah Beery, Jr., Ken Curtis, Robin Wright and Jane Russell. The Yellow Rose was c...
Have Gun, Will Travel
Character:
Have Gun – Will Travel is an American Western television series that aired on CBS from 1957 through 1963. It was rated number three or number four in the Nielsen ratings every year of its first four seasons. It was one of the few television shows to spawn a successful radio version. The radio series debuted November 23, 1958. The television show is presently shown on the Encore-Western channel. Have Gun – Will Travel was created by Sam Rolfe and Herb Meadow and produced by Frank Pierson, Don I...
The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour
Character: Self
The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour is an American network television music and comedy variety show hosted by singer Glen Campbell from January 1969 through June 1972 on CBS. He was offered the show after he hosted a 1968 summer replacement for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. Campbell used "Gentle on My Mind" as the theme song of the show. The show was one of the few rural-oriented shows to survive CBS's rural purge of 1971....
Petrocelli
Character:
Petrocelli is an American legal drama which ran for two seasons on NBC from September 11, 1974 to March 31, 1976. Tony Petrocelli is an Italian-American Harvard-educated lawyer who gave up the big money and frenetic pace of major-metropolitan life to practice in a sleepy city in the American Southwest. He and wife Maggie live in a trailer in the country while waiting for their new house to be built, and travel around in a beat-up old pickup truck. For a quiet rural area, Petrocelli seems to hav...
Wagon Train
Character: Kyle Cleatus
The series initially starred veteran movie supporting actor Ward Bond as the wagon master, later replaced upon his death by John McIntire, and Robert Horton as the scout, subsequently replaced by lookalike Robert Fuller a year after Horton had decided to leave the series. The series was inspired by the 1950 film Wagon Master directed by John Ford and starring Ben Johnson, Harry Carey Jr. and Ward Bond, and harkens back to the early widescreen wagon train epic The Big Trail starring John Wayne a...
How the West Was Won
Character: Orville Gant
The Macahans, a family from Virginia headed by Zeb Macahan, travel across the country to pioneer a new land and a new home in the American West....
Wagon Train
Character: Pappy Lightfoot
The series initially starred veteran movie supporting actor Ward Bond as the wagon master, later replaced upon his death by John McIntire, and Robert Horton as the scout, subsequently replaced by lookalike Robert Fuller a year after Horton had decided to leave the series. The series was inspired by the 1950 film Wagon Master directed by John Ford and starring Ben Johnson, Harry Carey Jr. and Ward Bond, and harkens back to the early widescreen wagon train epic The Big Trail starring John Wayne a...
Have Gun, Will Travel
Character: Monk
Have Gun – Will Travel is an American Western television series that aired on CBS from 1957 through 1963. It was rated number three or number four in the Nielsen ratings every year of its first four seasons. It was one of the few television shows to spawn a successful radio version. The radio series debuted November 23, 1958. The television show is presently shown on the Encore-Western channel. Have Gun – Will Travel was created by Sam Rolfe and Herb Meadow and produced by Frank Pierson, Don I...
Code Red
Character:
Code Red is an American drama series that ran from 1981 to 1982 on ABC and was produced by Irwin Allen. The series revolves around the family and crew of L.A. Battalion Fire Chief Joe Rorchek....
Black Beauty
Character: Howard Jakes
Born free in the American West, Black Beauty is a horse rounded up and brought to Birtwick Stables, where she meets spirited teenager Jo Green. The two forge a bond that carries Beauty through the different chapters, challenges and adventures....
Perry Mason
Character: Tim Durant
The cases of master criminal defense attorney Perry Mason and his staff who handled the most difficult of cases in the aid of the innocent....
Have Gun, Will Travel
Character: Skinner Monk
Have Gun – Will Travel is an American Western television series that aired on CBS from 1957 through 1963. It was rated number three or number four in the Nielsen ratings every year of its first four seasons. It was one of the few television shows to spawn a successful radio version. The radio series debuted November 23, 1958. The television show is presently shown on the Encore-Western channel. Have Gun – Will Travel was created by Sam Rolfe and Herb Meadow and produced by Frank Pierson, Don I...
Movie Credits
The Searchers
Character: Charlie McCorry
As a Civil War veteran spends years searching for a young niece captured by Indians, his motivation becomes increasingly questionable....
The Alamo
Character: Capt. Almeron Dickinson
The legendary true story of a small band of soldiers who sacrificed their lives in hopeless combat against a massive army in order to prevent a tyrant from smashing the new Republic of Texas....
Robin Hood
Character: Nutsy - A Vulture (voice)
With King Richard off to the Crusades, Prince John and his slithering minion, Sir Hiss, set about taxing Nottingham's citizens with support from the corrupt sheriff - and staunch opposition by the wily Robin Hood and his band of merry men....
Cheyenne Autumn
Character: Joe
A reluctant cavalry Captain must track a defiant tribe of migrating Cheyenne....
Conagher
Character: Seaborn Tay, Cattle Rancher
Mrs. Evie Teale is struggling to stay alive while raising her two children alone on a remote homestead. Conn Conagher is an honest, hardworking cowboy. Their lives are intertwined as they fight the elements, indians, outlaws, and loneliness....
The Killer Shrews
Character: Jerry Farrell
Trapped on a remote island by a hurricane, a group discover a doctor has been experimenting on creating half sized humans. Unfortunately, his experiments have also created giant shrews, who when they have run out of small animals to eat, turn on the humans....
The Long Gray Line
Character: Specialty (uncredited)
The life story of a salt-of-the-earth Irish immigrant, who becomes an Army Noncommissioned Officer and spends his 50 year career at the United States Military Academy at West Point. This includes his job-related experiences as well as his family life and the relationships he develops with young cadets with whom he befriends. Based on the life of a real person....
Mister Roberts
Character: Dolan
Mr. Roberts is a Navy officer who's yearning for battle but is stuck in the backwaters of World War II on a non-commissioned ship run by the bullying Captain Morton....
The Wings of Eagles
Character: John Dale Price
The story of Frank W. "Spig" Wead - a Navy-flyer turned screenwriter....
The Horse Soldiers
Character: Cpl. Wilkie
A Union Cavalry outfit is sent behind confederate lines in strength to destroy a rail supply center. Along with them is sent a doctor who causes instant antipathy between him and the commander. The secret plan for the mission is overheard by a southern belle who must be taken along to assure her silence....
How the West Was Won
Character: Cpl. Ben (uncredited)
The epic tale of the development of the American West from the 1830s through the Civil War to the end of the century, as seen through the eyes of one pioneer family....
The Last Hurrah
Character: Monsignor Killian
In a changing world where television has become the main source of information, Adam Caulfield, a young sports journalist, witnesses how his uncle, Frank Skeffington, a veteran and honest politician, mayor of a New England town, tries to be reelected while bankers and captains of industry conspire in the shadows to place a weak and manageable candidate in the city hall....
Legend of the Wild
Character:
Patchwork movie edited from episodes from the TV series The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams (1977)....
Once Upon a Texas Train
Character: Kelly Sutton
Captain Hayes of the mighty law enforcement squad named the Texas Rangers reached the pinnacle of his career when he captured the notorious John Henry, an outlaw cowboy, and put him behind bars. Twenty years later, upon his release, Henry is older but unrepentant. Within six hours after leaving his jail cell, he evens the score with Hayes by holding up the Bank of Texas for $20,000 in gold. Hayes, in his fury, gets himself out of retirement to take up the chase once more....
Call of the Forest
Character: Bob Brand
A prospector is looking for a lost gold mine and finds aid in his search through the efforts of his friend, Stormcloud, whom he has aided in the past. Stormcloud gives the prospector's son a map leading to the mine in repayment for his past kindness. When a claim jumper learns about the map, he targets the prospector and his son in order to get the treasure....
Song of the Prairie
Character: Dan Tyler
Joan Wingate's wealthy father doesn't want his daughter to go into show business. As they vacation in the west she gets a job with Dan Tyler's show and uses Wingate money to keep him afloat. Sandwiched in between the numerous musical numbers they try to keep her father away from the show. But he eventually finds out and decides they will return east...
Spring Reunion
Character: Al
A spinster finally finds the right man when she returns to her alma mater after 15 years for a class reunion....
Freckles
Character: Wessner
A young man with only one hand gets a job at a timber camp and falls for his boss's daughter....
The Missouri Traveler
Character: Fred Mueller
Byron Turner, a 15-year-old runaway from the Eatondale Orphan Asylum, receives a ride into the rural Missouri town of Delphi with rich land-owner Tobias Brown....
The Growler Story
Character: Captain Howard W. Gilmore
True story of Lt.Cdr. Howard W.Gilmore who was awarded the Medal of Honor for sacrificing himself to save his submarine, February 1943....
Two Rode Together
Character: Greeley Clegg
Two tough westerners bring home a group of settlers who have spent years as Comanche hostages....
The Young Land
Character: Lee Hearn
An American gunslinger kills a Mexican man in California immediately after the Mexican-American war. The killer is arrested and put on trial for murder with the Hispanic population waiting to learn of American justice....
That Texas Jamboree
Character: Curt Chambers
With the backing of the Mayor, Brady is running a crooked gambling operation. When Sheriff Curt shuts him down, he reopens when the Mayor charters his place as a private club. When Curt decides to run for Mayor, he is made to shut down the popular Warren medicine show. With Curt now out of favor the Warrens decide to run their daughter for Mayor and Brady has a plan to stop her also....
Pony Express Rider
Character: Jed Richardson
A young Texas Man who saw his father get killed by a group of bandits, decides years later to go to work for the Pony Express. But he is not just working around the country to deliver mail, he is actually finding the bandits who murdered his father....
Rhythm Round-Up
Character: Jimmy Benson
Arriving in Arizona, the band members discover that the hotel is haunted and that it properly belongs to young Jimmy Benson (Curtis), the nephew of the previous owner. The "ghosts," however, turns out to be a trio of confidence men, Zeke Winslow (Guinn "Big Boy" Williams), Noah Jones (Raymond Hatton) and Slim Jensen Victor Potel, who are hoping to buy the place themselves....
Singing on the Trail
Character: Curt Stanton
In this Western, Ken Curtis, Columbia Pictures' low-budget answer to Gene Autry, romanced one of the studio's most beautiful starlets, Rita Hayworth-lookalike Dusty Anderson. She played Helen Wyatt, whose father (the rotund Guy Kibbee) loses his ranch to the hayseed singing group the Hoosier Hot Shots. Unbeknownst to Wyatt, the Hot Shots have been swindled by a couple of Eastern crooks (Ian Keith and Matt Willis) and consider themselves the lawful owners. Chased by the irascible Wyatt, the band ...
Throw a Saddle on a Star
Character: Curt Walker
The "star" in the title of this low-budget singing Western was Dynamite, a wild stallion captured by cowboy Curt Walker to ride in the Big Rodeo. Unscrupulous John Burton has bet against Curt and does his best to sabotage the event. When lovely Barbara Allen, Curt's new girlfriend, leaves town because of Burton's schemes, Curt loses the first couple of events. The big Bronco Busting contest is coming up, and Pop Walker stalls the proceedings with a series of singing acts while the girl's brother...
The Quiet Man
Character: Dermot Fahy (uncredited)
An American man returns to the village of his birth in Ireland, where he finds love and conflict....
Rio Grande
Character: Donnelly - Regimental Singer (uncredited)
Lt. Col. Kirby Yorke is posted on the Texas frontier to defend settlers against depredations of marauding Apaches. Col. Yorke is under considerable stress by a serious shortage of troops of his command. Tension is added when Yorke's son (whom he hasn't seen in fifteen years), Trooper Jeff Yorke, is one of 18 recruits sent to the regiment....
Don Daredevil Rides Again
Character: Lee Hadley / Don Daredevil
Stock-footage from Republic Pictures' earlier Zorro serials was served up once again in this 12 chapter cliffhanger, this time without the financially strapped studio having to credit Zorro creator Johnston McCulley or pay any royalties. Zorro simply became "Don Daredevil" (Ken Curtis), a foppish Easterner by day turned masked avenger by night. Like his not too distant relative, Don wore his disguise in order to battle nasty Roy Barcroft who, under a forged Spanish land grant, attempts to take o...
Lone Star Moonlight
Character: Curt Norton
Returning G.I. Curt Norton (Ken Curtis), owner of a radio station, finds his father Amos (Guy Kibbee) has allowed the station to run down and has squandered Curt's money in bad investments in war-surplus material. Eddie Jackson (Robert Kellard), who owns the rival station, is also attracted to Curt's sweetheart Jean White (Joan Barton). When Curt and the Hoosier Hotshots successfully stage an auction to raise money, Eddie hires Mimi Carston (Claudia Drake) to claim that Curt married her in Franc...
Cowboy Blues
Character: Curt Durant
Starring Ken Curtis and the hayseed singing group the Hoosier Hot Shots, this musical Western is really Lady for a Day with a switch in gender. Rotund Guy Kibbee is Dusty Nelson, the handyman at the Bar B dude ranch, whose daughter Susan is arriving with her socialite fiancee, Jerome Winston. Susan believes her father owns the ranch, and to spare Dusty any embarrassment, the Hot Shots, ranch manager Curt Durant and sidekick Big Boy Stover agree to continue the deception....
Over the Santa Fe Trail
Character: Curt Mason
Curt Mason saves Doc Henderson's Medicine Show from being robbed by the Morrell gang but later earns the enmity of Carolyn when he blames the troupe for polluting a local watering hole. Arriving in town, the medicine show, which consists of Doc Henderson, Taffy, the singing group the Hoosier Hot Shots and Carolyn, begin their performance while Curt is unsuccessfully attempting to stop the Morrell gang from robbing the bank. The sheriff mistakes Curt for one of the gang, and to save their friend,...
Riders of the Pony Express
Character: Tom Blake
In a rigged gunfight Tom Blake is forced to shoot a man in self defense and is then hunted for murder. After a long trip fleeing the posse he uses a false name and joins the Pony Express which is just about to commence operatons. Relegated to the most dangerous section of the route, he finds himself fighting the District Manager's scheme to sabotage the inital run. But just then a wanted poster with his picture on it arrives....
Stallion Canyon
Character: Curt Benson
It took a lot of courage to set up a new production company devoted to "B" westerns in 1949, a year when the genre was showing signs of winding down. Filmed in Trucolor, Stallion Canyon was the maiden effort from Kanab Productions, a Utah-based organization. Former Sons of the Pioneers vocalist Ken Curtis made his starring debut in this one, playing a ranch foreman who does his best to track down a rogue stallion. The rest of the cast is comprised of unknowns, save for villains Ted Adams and For...
Escort West
Character: Trooper Burch
Seeking a new place to call home, former Confederate soldier Ben Lassiter (Victor Mature) and his daughter meet Beth (Elaine Stewart), whose fiancé is a Union soldier. Lassiter falls for Beth, and when Indians attack, they head to a cavalry camp where Lassiter must battle the Indians as well as Beth's fiancé....
California Gold Rush
Character: Kentuck
Author Bret Harte relates the story of the discovery of gold in California at Sutter's Mill, and how that discovery changed the history of the west forever....
Lost
Character: Wyatt Cosgrove
A little girl gets lost in the wilds of Utah....
Fighting Coast Guard
Character: Ken - Member Sons of the Pioneers
Story of how the Coast Guard trained to help win World War II....
Five Steps to Danger
Character: FBI Agent Jim Anderson (uncredited)
Can a couple keep important secrets from Communist spies?...