Georgia Ellis
Georgia Ellis is best known for her character, Kitty Russell, in the tremendously popular radio show, Gunsmoke – a Western radio drama. But before her Miss Kitty role, she appeared in Billy the Kid, the first episode of Gunsmoke as Francie Richards, widow of a criminal and a past girlfriend of Marshall Matt Dillon.
Georgia Ellis is best known for her character, Kitty Russell, in the tremendously popular radio show, Gunsmoke – a Western radio drama. But before her Miss Kitty role, she appeared in Billy the Kid, the first episode of Gunsmoke as Francie Richards, widow of a criminal and a past girlfriend of Marshall Matt Dillon. She first appeared in the role of Miss Kitty 1952 in the episode entitled Jalisco. Kitty Russell is a saloon girl and though her character is never clearly defined to the public most listeners knew she was a lady of the night – and a woman that Dillon visited from time to time.
The radio version of Gunsmoke ran from April 26th,1952 until June 18th 1961 and, along side Ellis, starred Howard McNear as Doc, Parley Baer as Chester and William Conrad as Matt Dillon.
When Gunsmoke ran concurrently on TV from 1955 non of the radio cast moved from the radio series. Because of his widening girth, Conrad was replaced by James Arness to play Matt Dillon on the Gunsmoke television series and Amada Blake replaced Georgia Ellis as Miss Kitty. Dennis Weaver was placed in the role of Chester, and Milburn Stone played the role of Doc.
Georgia Ellis’ early roles in radio were support roles in Dr. Kildare, Dragnet, Escape – a dramatic adventure anthology and The Green Lama – an adventure/drama based on the novels by Richard Foster. In another adventure/drama, I Fly Anything, Georgia Ellis played June, the office manager.
She also appeared in NBC University Theater, Let George Do It, The Adventures Of Philip Marlowe and CBS Radio Workshop and was a Hollywood regular in Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar and This Is Your FBI.
From 20th June through 8th August 1950 Georgia Ellis played alongside future Gunsmoke co-star William Conrad in the series Romance that originally began in 1943. The episodes they appeared in were also produced and directed by Norman McDonnell and written by John Meston both who went on to collaborate on Gunsmoke. Unfortunately we don’t have any of these to add to RUSC and would love to hear them. If you can help, please email ned@rusc.com.
In 1952, Ellis was featured in the cast of The Modern Adventures of Casanova, starring Errol Flynn as Christopher Casanova, William Conrad and Lamont Johnson.
In 1953 –54 Georgia Ellis also featured alongside Parley Baer’s Doc Clemmens in Rogers of The Gazette. She played the part of Rogers’ assistant Maggie Button.
While she appeared in numerous radio dramas, she did not develop a major film or television acting career and she is listed in only three movies in the Internet Movie DataBase including, Penny Serenade (1941), and under the name of Georgia Hawkins she appeared in Doomed Caravan, a 1941 B-Western starring William Boyd as Hopalong Cassidy. She also appeared in 5 episodes of Dragnet on TV in the 1950's.
Georgia Ellis was born in America in 1917 and died in March 1988 in Woodland Hills, California.
Happy listening my friends,
