Georgia Ellis

Georgia Ellis (March 12, 1917 – March 30, 1988) was an American actress whose career spanned Broadway, film, radio, and television. She is perhaps best remembered for her recurring role as Kitty in the Western radio drama Gunsmoke. The daughter of John R. Hawkins and Blanche E. Sparling, Ellis built a career across multiple entertainment mediums over several decades.

Her Broadway work took place between 1930 and 1933, during which she appeared in four productions. These included the musicals Smiles, Melody, and Hot-Cha!, as well as the Ziegfeld Follies of 1931.

Ellis also worked under the name Georgia Hawkins, and it was under that name that she made her film debut in The Light of Western Stars in 1940. A contemporary news account described her and another actress as discoveries of Victor Jory. Her film appearances included Penny Serenade (1940), Doomed Caravan (1941), and Dragnet (1954). In the 1950s she also took on a number of small roles in the Dragnet television series.

On radio, Ellis was a cast member of Rogers of the Gazette and appeared on CBS Radio Workshop in addition to her work on Gunsmoke. Her personal life included three marriages. She wed actor Thomas M. Skinner on August 31, 1941, in Yuma, Arizona. Her second husband was Antony Ellis, a writer, producer, and director of radio and television, whom she met while both were appearing at the Pasadena Playhouse; they married in 1948 and had a son, Jonathan. She later married Karl E. Puttfarken in Los Angeles on June 30, 1961, with her name recorded on the marriage certificate as Georgia B. Hawkins.