In the "Us Haggens" episode, where Festus Haggen visited Dodge City, he made his television debut. Kris debunked that theory himself when he responded to a fan comment. Charles Marquis Warren, who produced the first time of the TV interpretation of Gunsmoke and made the major casting opinions, stated that hed jokingly asked Wayne whether hed be interested in the part in a casual social setting. I have to remember that at the time (1962) it was just a written show with no idea that Festus would become a regular on the show at a later date. Curtis guest-starred five times on the Western television series Have Gun Will Travel with Richard Boone. The family lived below the jail because the jail took up the entire second floor and his mother, Nellie Sneed Gates, cooked for the prisoners. Regularly, Festus would squint with the right eye, too. Matt Dillon is a fictional character featured on both the radio and TV performances of Gunsmoke. Amanda Blake, who played Miss Kitty in the long-running Gunsmoke series, died of complications from AIDS, not cancer, as previously reported, her doctor said Monday. [10], Curtis died on April 28, 1991 in his sleep of a heart attack in Fresno, California. In 1950s Hollywood, Curtis came a regular in Fords flicks, including the classic John Wayne flicks Rio Grande (1950), The Quiet Man (1952), The Searchers (1956), The Bodies of Eagles (1957), The Horse Dogfaces (1959), and How the West Was Won (1962). He voiced Nutsy the vulture in Disney's 1973 animated film Robin Hood. google_color_bg = "FFFFFF"; google_ad_client = "pub-9172031313930080"; show Gunsmoke, died of cancer at a local hospital last night; he was 74. Ken married Barbara, the daughter of director John Ford. Four years later, Julius was struck and killed by a truck. He and his family lived above the local jail due to his father being the sheriff. In some occurrences of Gilligans Island, Gilligan would conjure that he was Matt Dillon in Dodge City, and the CBS Gunsmoke set was used, including the jail and sheriffs office. Hes the U.S. does st martin parish have school tomorrow. Hed also go on to direct a number of TV programs ( including two occurrences of Gunsmoke), to come The Narrator for the original TV series of The Expatriate (1963 1967) and star in three TV series Cannon (1971 1976), Jake and the Fat Man (1987 1992), and the short-lived 1981 series Nero Wolfe. After his death, he left a heritage for the performing trades in Cecil County in northeastern Maryland, by way of the Milburn Stone Theatre in North East, Maryland. Black Beauty. Festus ],