How Ken Curtis Became One of Hollywood's Most Unlikely Legends
2.5K views · Sep 21, 2026 · Entertainment
Comments · 3
@rozsmith6780 · 8 days ago
I think you need to check Curtis's filmography a bit closer. <br><br>Two years before he first appeared as Festus Haggen on Gunsmoke Ken Curtis was in two separate episodes of the TV Western Have Gun Will Travel as Skinner Monk, a man who made his living salvaging the pelts of dead animals. Monk was grimy, stunk from his work, and spoke in an ungrammatical twang that rivaled fingernails on a blackboard for being annoying. In his second appearance, Monk astonishes HGWT's lead character Palladin, the nom de guerre of a cultured, highly educated hired gun played by Richard Boone, when he sings a love song so beautifully it stops all conversation in a busy, very upscale entertainment venue.*<br><br>*It was 1960, so it was strongly hinted while not overtly stated, that Monk had inherited a half interest in the most expensive brothel in San Francisco. <br><br>Curtis himself said Festus was in part based on Monk.
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@jessenone3708 · 8 days ago (edited)
I saw killer shrews when I was a little boy. I remember being so scared I couldn't go to sleep because I was so afraid.. I saw it much later as an adult and it was so goofy and unrelistic I laughed at it.
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