DICK CURTIS
May 11th, 1902 -- January 3rd, 1952

Above: A marvelous publicity portrait of one of the biggest and the best of B-western bad guys: Dick Curtis.

With a tall, hulking frame topped off by a heavily wrinkled face, high cheekbones, and shifty eyes, Dick Curtis was an exceptionally threatening bad guy. Indeed, with the exception of Anthony Warde, no serial and B-movie regular has such a 100% track record for playing villains; even Roy Barcroft and Kenne Duncan would tread the straight and narrow from time to time, but Dick almost never "strayed" to the path of virtue. While Curtis played both slow-witted henchmen and crafty chief villains in B-westerns (check out Wild Bill Elliott's TAMING OF THE WEST for an example of the former and Russell Hayden's excellent RIDERS OF THE NORTHWEST MOUNTED for an example of the latter) he was almost always cast as the action heavy in serials, a part that suited his usual on-screen combination of physical brutality and mental cunning to a T.

Dick was born in Richard Dye in Newport, Kentucky, but other than that, there seems to be no biographical info on his early years. He seems to have arrived in Hollywood around 1930, and began his screen career playing bit roles and walk-ons. He had a very small role (as one of the sailors) in the classic KING KONG in 1934, and shortly after made his first serial, Mascot's THE MIRACLE RIDER, in 1935. The cliffhanger is a popular one and historically important for being the great Tom Mix's last film, but Dick's contribution was pretty minor: he played the small role of a henchman named Coltrie, and dropped out of sight after Chapter One. Following this modest serial debut, Dick returned to features, and began to gain notice as a heavy in B-westerns starring the likes of Kermit Maynard, Charles Starrett, and Johnny Mack Brown. Thanks to his many meaty B-western parts, he was given a bigger role in his next serial, the low-budget mystery/thriller BLAKE OF SCOTLAND YARD (Victory, 1937). He was Nicky, one of a gang of thugs headed by "the Scorpion", a master villain after a death ray protected by Inspector James Blake (Herbert Rawlinson). Curtis, together with usual hero Herman Brix and stuntman George DeNormand, handled a lot of the active villain work.

Dick then continued on the B-western trail, concentrating more and more on Columbia titles as the thirties progressed. He also found a second venue for work in Columbia's Three Stooges comedies; with his pliable features and athletic ability, he made a perfect foil for the Stooges' brand of broad, physical humor. He made his first Columbia serial, THE SPIDER'S WEB, in 1938; he was cast as a villain named Malloy who was killed halfway through by order of his evil boss, the mysterious Octopus. His part as Korman in FLYING G-MEN (Columbia, 1939) was slightly more prominent, but though Dick’s character was the lieutenant of the lead villain, his sole job was to relay orders to the other henchmen and he never came into direct conflict with the heroes till the last chapters of the serial. After playing a minor henchman in MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN, Curtis was cast as Drake, the field commander of Pegleg’s Black Raiders in OVERLAND WITH KIT CARSON. In this meaty role, Curtis battled up-and-coming Western star Wild Bill Elliott, and met with an fitting--or unfitting, from Dick's point of view--reward for his villainous services when Pegleg had him trampled by the killer stallion Midnight in Chapter 14, as a penalty for disobeying orders.

Above: Dick Curtis (center) and two henchmen are captured by the Black Falcon (far left) and another flying G-man in a publicity picture from FLYING G-MEN (Columbia, 1939).

Above: Dick Curtis (left) talks to Stanley Brown in OVERLAND WITH KIT CARSON (Columbia, 1939).

Dick turned in some more great performances in B-westerns and Stooge films until his next serial, TERRY AND THE PIRATES (Columbia, 1940). This serial, though based on the beloved comic strip by Milt Caniff, was directed by James W. Horne, and as such contained more comedy than thrills. Curtis was well cast as the Oriental warlord Fang, but Horne had him "ham up" the character to such an extent that Dick was basically playing one of his Three Stooges bad guys this time around. Following TERRY, Dick dropped out of serials for a while, concentrating mainly on Bill Elliott and Charles Starrett B-westerns; it was during this period in his career that he turned in one of his greatest bad guy performances as the cold-blooded, revenge-seeking Mitch Carew in Elliott's ACROSS THE SIERRAS. Dick did manage token appearances in cliffhangers like SEA RAIDERS (Universal, 1941), as a sailor, and THE BATMAN (Columbia, 1943), as an Axis spy/radioman. He also did a "guest appearance" of sorts in the excellent THE PHANTOM (Columbia, 1943), as a Tartar chieftain who gave hero Tom Tyler a lot of trouble from Chapters 11-13, but turned out to be a just, if somewhat stern, ruler. It was about as close to a good guy as Dick was to get in his serial career.

Above, from left to right: Victor DeCamp (as Big Stoop), Allen Jung (as Connie), William Tracy (as Terry), and Jeff York (as Pat Ryan) face an off-screen threat in this pressbook photo from TERRY AND THE PIRATES (Columbia, 1940). Dick Curtis, as Fang, is shown in the largest photo insert; the others are Joyce Bryant as Normandie Drake and Sheila Darcy as the Dragon Lady.

Above: Dick Curtis has a knife at William Tracy's throat in another pressbook still from TERRY AND THE PIRATES (Columbia, 1940).

Three more Universal cliffhangers (1944's MYSTERY OF THE RIVERBOAT, 1945's THE MASTER KEY, and 1946's THE SCARLET HORSEMAN) gave Dick small parts as, respectively, a Lousiana crook named Craig Cassard, a minor thug named Reicher, and a wagon driver. However, it was also Universal who restored Dick to serial henchmen prominence with LOST CITY OF THE JUNGLE in 1946, with the role of Johnson, faithful lackey to warmonger Lionel Atwill. While the cliffhanger had an excellent cast (Curtis, Atwill, Russell Hayden, Jane Adams, Keye Luke) it was injured by Atwill's death midway through production; this sad incident forced Universal to shoot the deceased actor's remaining scenes with a double and to bring in another actor claiming to be Atwill's superior. The stellar performers still gave the cliffhanger their best, with Curtis and his fellow thugs continually battling Hayden and Luke for the possession of a deadly atomic element. Interestingly, the year of the serial's release, Curtis and Hayden teamed up in real life to found Pioneertown, an extensive "movie ranch" in California's Sawtooth Basin.

Above: Dick Curtis (far right) and George Lynn (second from right) lead a group of heavies in LOST CITY OF THE JUNGLE (Universal, 1946). From the explosives they’re carrying it looks like they’re up to no good.

Above: George Lynn (far left) and Dick Curtis get the drop on Jane Adams and John Eldredge in LOST CITY OF THE JUNGLE (Universal, 1946).

In fact, Dick's second-to-the-last serial was in all probability filmed at Pioneertown: ROAR OF THE IRON HORSE (Columbia, 1950). Jock Mahoney starred in this saga of Western railroad building, and Dick opposed him as "Campo", the right-hand man of frontier tyrant Karl Ulrich (George Eldredge). Ulrich was determined to stop the railroad from bringing law and order to his outlaw domain, but even with the able assistance of Curtis and Jack Ingram (as a treacherous railroad-crew foreman) this evil plan met defeat from the athletic Jock.

Curtis's last serial was his first and only Republic outing, GOVERNMENT AGENTS VS. PHANTOM LEGION (Columbia, 1951). Dick was deservedly given third billing in this G-men adventure, as his character, "Regan", handled every shred of action while his boss, the mysterious Voice, never stirred from the hideout. Together with Fred Coby as "Cady", Dick took on strong hero Walter Reed in an effort to disrupt America's highway transportation system by hijacking trucks, but was ultimately killed in an explosive booby-trap of his own creation. Though a late-era Republic, AGENTS moved fast and was very entertaining in its own right, due in large part to Curtis's great performance. It was an ideal swan song for the giant villain.

Above: Walter Reed (right) gives Dick Curtis a great punch in this fight scene from GOVERNMENT AGENTS VS. PHANTOM LEGION (Republic, 1951).

While Dick gave no indication of being in ill health in GOVERNMENT AGENTS, he apparently was suffering from some disease, probably either heart trouble or cancer, as he passed away the very next year, at the age of fifty. We lost a wonderful villain--and a wonderful man-- far too soon.

Dick Curtis, though he may have died a thousand screen deaths, was truly immortal to his fans. They knew that the chances were, the next serial or B-western they saw would as likely as not feature that huge, ugly figure striding around in fedora or Stetson, and they looked forward to each of his dastardly deeds, knowing he'd get his comeuppance in the end--but not before he fulfilled expectations by keeping lead flying for 12 or 15 chapters. He was another one of those unsung greats who formed the foundation of the serial world.