George Kennedy
{{short description|American actor (1925–2016)}}
{{Other people}}
{{Use American English|date=September 2021}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| name = George Kennedy
| image = George Kennedy 1975.JPG
| caption = Publicity photo of Kennedy (1975)
| birth_name = George Harris Kennedy Jr.
| birth_date = {{birth date|1925|2|18}}
| birth_place = New York City, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|2016|2|28|1925|2|18}}
| death_place = Middleton, Idaho, U.S.
| occupation = Actor
| years_active = 1956–2014
| spouse = {{Plainlist|
- {{marriage|Dorothy Gillooly|1946|1959|end=div}}
- {{marriage|Norma Wurman|1959|1971|end=div}}
- {{marriage||1973|1978|end=div}}
- {{marriage|Joan McCarthy|1978|2015|end=d.}}
}}
| children = 6
}}
George Harris Kennedy Jr. (February 18, 1925 – February 28, 2016) was an American actor who appeared in more than 100 film and television productions. He played "Dragline" in Cool Hand Luke (1967), winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the role and being nominated for the corresponding Golden Globe. He received a second Golden Globe nomination for portraying Joe Patroni in Airport (1970).
Among other films in which he had a significant role are Lonely Are the Brave, Charade, Strait-Jacket, McHale's Navy, Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte, Mirage, Shenandoah, The Sons of Katie Elder, The Flight of the Phoenix, In Harm's Way, The Dirty Dozen, The Boston Strangler, Guns of the Magnificent Seven, tick… tick… tick…, Cahill U.S. Marshal, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, The Good Guys and the Bad Guys, Earthquake, The Eiger Sanction and The Delta Force.
Kennedy is the only actor to appear in all four films in the Airport series, reprising the role of Joe Patroni three times. He also portrays Police Captain Ed Hocken in the Naked Gun series of films, and corrupt oil tycoon Carter McKay on the original Dallas television series.
Early life, education and military service
Kennedy was born on February 18, 1925, in New York City, into a show business family. His father, George Harris Kennedy, a musician and orchestra leader, died when Kennedy was four years old.{{cite news| url=http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article63205232.html| title=George Kennedy, actor in 'Cool Hand Luke,' 'Airport,' dies at 91| newspaper=Los Angeles Times| via=Miami Herald| first=Dennis| last=McLellan| access-date=June 11, 2020| date=February 29, 2016}} He was raised by his mother, Helen A. (née Kieselbach), a ballet dancer.{{cite web| url=http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~battle/celeb/kennedy.htm| title=George Harris Kennedy Jr.| publisher=Rootsweb.com| archive-date=November 13, 2007| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071113014741/http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~battle/celeb/kennedy.htm| url-status=live}} His maternal grandfather was a German immigrant; his other ancestry was Irish and English.
Kennedy made his stage debut at age 2 in a touring company of Bringing Up Father, and by age 7, he was a New York City radio DJ.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}
Kennedy graduated in 1943 from Chaminade High School in Mineola, Long Island, New York.{{Cite news|last1=McFadden|first1=Robert D.|title=George Kennedy Dies at 91; Versatile Actor Won Oscar for 'Cool Hand Luke'; Hollywood's Leading Sidekick.|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/01/movies/george-kennedy-versatile-actor-who-won-an-oscar-for-cool-hand-luke-dies-at-91.html|access-date=2020-11-23|issn=0362-4331|quote=After graduating from Chaminade High School in Mineola, New York, he joined the Army, fought in the infantry in Europe in World War II and spent 16 years in the service.[...] Correction: March 3, 2016 An obituary on Tuesday about the actor George Kennedy misidentified the high school from which he graduated. It is Chaminade High School in Mineola, N.Y. — not W. C. Mepham High School in Bellmore, N.Y. |first2=Daniel E.|last2=Slotnik|date=1 March 2016|page=B12}}
Kennedy enlisted in the United States Army during World War II in 1943. He served 6 years, reaching the rank of captain. Kennedy served in the infantry under George S. Patton, fought in the Battle of the Bulge, and earned two Bronze Stars. He re-enlisted after the war, and he was discharged in the late 1950s due to a back injury.
Career
File:George Kennedy Sarge 1971.JPG, 1971]]
His first notable screen role was a military policeman on the TV sitcom The Phil Silvers Show,{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} for which he also served as a technical adviser to ensure accuracy for the show's military base setting. Kennedy later described the Silvers show as "a great training ground".
His film career began in 1961 in The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come. He appeared in several Hollywood movies, including as a sadistic jail guard in the Kirk Douglas modern Western Lonely Are the Brave (1962), a ruthless criminal in the Cary Grant suspense film Charade (1963) and in the Joan Crawford thriller Strait-Jacket (1964).
Kennedy was busy in 1965. He appeared with Gregory Peck in the mystery Mirage, with a large cast led by James Stewart in the plane-crash adventure The Flight of the Phoenix, with John Wayne in the war film In Harm's Way, and with Wayne and Dean Martin in the Western The Sons of Katie Elder.
He played the character Blodgett in a 1966 episode "Return to Lawrence" of the series The Legend of Jesse James. He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in Cool Hand Luke (1967) for his performance as Dragline, a chain-gang convict who at first resents the new prisoner in camp played by Paul Newman, then comes to idolize the rebellious Luke.
Kennedy followed with films such as The Dirty Dozen, Bandolero! and The Boston Strangler. In 1970, he appeared in the disaster film Airport, in which he plays one of its main characters, airline troubleshooter Joe Patroni. He reprises this role in Airport 1975, Airport '77 and The Concorde ... Airport '79, the only cast member to appear in each film of the series.
File:George Kennedy The Blue Knight 1976.JPG, 1976]]
The Airport franchise helped inspire the Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker satire Airplane!, in which the filmmakers hoped to cast Kennedy as the bumbling plane dispatcher. The role went to Lloyd Bridges because Kennedy "couldn't kill off his Airport cash-cow", Jerry Zucker said in 2010.{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/aug/22/airplane-at-30-zucker-abrahams-interview| title=Airplane at 30! The ride of their lives| first=John| last=Patterson| date=August 22, 2010| newspaper=The Guardian| location=London| archive-date=March 7, 2014| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140307091836/http://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/aug/22/airplane-at-30-zucker-abrahams-interview| url-status=live}}
Kennedy co-starred with Clint Eastwood in Thunderbolt and Lightfoot and The Eiger Sanction, and with ensemble casts in the disaster film Earthquake and the Agatha Christie mystery Death on the Nile.
He also starred in two television series: Sarge, which aired from 1971 to 1972 and The Blue Knight from 1975 to 1976.
Kennedy starred in two Japanese productions, Junya Satō's Proof of the Man in 1977 and Kinji Fukasaku's Virus in 1980. Both films were produced by Haruki Kadokawa and featured extensive international casts and shooting locations. Although Proof of the Man was only released theatrically in Japan and Virus saw a financially unsuccessful truncated cut in the U.S., Kennedy was highly enthusiastic about his involvement.{{cite web| last1=Homenick| first1=Brett| title=George Kennedy Remembers Japan! The Legendary Actor Recalls Making the Disaster Movie Virus in the Far East!| url=https://vantagepointinterviews.com/2016/03/01/george-kennedy-remembers-japan-the-legendary-actor-recalls-making-the-disaster-movie-virus-in-the-far-east/| website=Vantage Point Interviews| date=March 2016| access-date=23 September 2017}}
In 1984, Kennedy starred with Bo Derek in the box-office bomb Bolero. His other films during the 1980s included Savage Dawn, The Delta Force and Creepshow 2. He played Captain Ed Hocken in all three entries of The Naked Gun film trilogy (1988, 1991, 1994) alongside Leslie Nielsen, Priscilla Presley and O. J. Simpson.
File:Karen Black and George Kennedy.jpg, 2008]]
In 1990, Kennedy appeared in the Korean film Mayumi directed by Shin Sang-ok. Despite featuring Kennedy, it saw no wide release outside of South Korea and was ultimately a box-office failure.{{cite news| last1=Rayns| first1=Tony| title=Obituary: Shin Sang-Ok| url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/shin-sang-ok-6101982.html| newspaper=The Independent| location=London| access-date=18 November 2017}}
On television, Kennedy starred as Carter McKay in the TV series Dallas (1978–1991), appearing from 1988 to 1991. From the mid-to-late 1990s, he promoted "BreathAsure" antacid tablets in radio and television commercials.{{cite news| url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-feb-19-fi-27329-story.html| title=BreathAsure: From Bootstraps to Bankruptcy Court| newspaper=Los Angeles Times| last=Robinson-Jacob| first=Karen| date=February 19, 2001| access-date=March 1, 2016}}{{cite news| url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-07-04-fi-20100-story.html| title=Founders of Breath Asure Savor Sweet Smell of Success: Marketing: Heavy advertising featuring actor George Kennedy helps L.A. County firm's sales rocket upward| last=Kirka| first=Danica| work=Los Angeles Times| date=July 4, 1995| access-date=June 11, 2020}} Around this time, he reprised his role as McKay in the television films Dallas: J.R. Returns and Dallas: War of the Ewings. In the late 1970s, Kennedy also appeared as a celebrity guest on the game show Match Game.
In 1998, he voiced Brick Bazooka for the film Small Soldiers. He then made several independent films, before making a 2003 comeback to television in The Young and the Restless, playing the character Albert Miller, the biological father to character Victor Newman. In 2005, he made a cameo in the film Don't Come Knocking, playing the director of an ill-fated western.
Kennedy made his final film appearance in The Gambler (2014) as Ed, the dying grandfather of Mark Wahlberg's Jim Bennett. His role lasts for less than two minutes during the film's opening scene, wherein Ed (moments before his death) bequeaths the responsibilities of patriarch to a heartbroken Jim.
Personal life
= Marriages and children =
Kennedy was married four times, to three women. In the 1940s, he married Dorothy Gillooly, who had served in the Women's Army Corps.{{cite news| url=https://variety.com/2016/film/news/george-kennedy-dies-dead-airport-cool-hand-luke-1201718567/| title='Airport' Star George Kennedy Dies at 91| first=Carmel| last=Dagan| date=February 29, 2016| access-date=February 29, 2016| work=Variety}} They were divorced in the 1950s; Dorothy returned to her hometown Buffalo, New York. In 1959, Kennedy married Norma Wurman, also known as Revel Wurman. The couple had two children. Kennedy and Norma divorced the first time in 1971, remarried in 1973, and divorced a second and final time in 1978. The same year, Kennedy married Joan McCarthy (née Castagna). They remained married until her death in September 2015. The couple adopted three children.
= Interests =
Kennedy was friends with James Stewart, and he provided the voiceover in a mini-tribute to Stewart on TCM.{{cite video| title=James Stewart Tribute narrated by George Kennedy| url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIEk-1g_D8A |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/AIEk-1g_D8A |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live| website=YouTube| date=August 27, 2007| access-date=June 11, 2020}}{{cbignore}} Kennedy was an aviator who enjoyed flying and owned a Cessna 210 and Beechcraft Bonanza.{{cite journal| journal=AOPA Pilot| title=A plane-crazy America| date=May 5, 2014| url=http://www.aopa.org/News-and-Video/All-News/2014/May/Pilot/f_planecrazy| publication-date=May 2014| page=79}} Following his experiences working for the Far East Network during WWII and professional involvement with Proof of the Man and Virus, Kennedy maintained a lifelong affinity for Japan and its culture.
= Illness and death =
Kennedy resided in Eagle, Idaho, at the time of his death. He died on the morning of February 28, 2016, of a heart ailment at an assisted-living facility in Middleton, Idaho, 10 days after his 91st birthday.{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/george-kennedy-oscar-winning-character-actor-of-cool-hand-luke-dies-at-91/2016/02/29/f4451a92-df2f-11e5-8d98-4b3d9215ade1_story.html |title=George Kennedy, Oscar-winning character actor of 'Cool Hand Luke,' dies at 91 |last=Bernstein |first=Adam |date=February 29, 2016 |newspaper=The Washington Post |language=en-US |access-date=February 29, 2016 |archive-date=March 1, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160301095316/https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/george-kennedy-oscar-winning-character-actor-of-cool-hand-luke-dies-at-91/2016/02/29/f4451a92-df2f-11e5-8d98-4b3d9215ade1_story.html |url-status=live |df=mdy}} He had a history of heart disease.{{cite news |url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/george-kennedy-dead-cool-hand-721400 |title=George Kennedy, Oscar Winner for 'Cool Hand Luke,' Dies at 91 |last1=Barnes |first=Mike |author2=Duane Byrge |newspaper=The Hollywood Reporter |date=February 29, 2016 |archive-date=March 12, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160312160854/http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/george-kennedy-dead-cool-hand-721400 |url-status=live |access-date=October 1, 2016 |df=mdy }}
Filmography
= Film =
{{sticky header}}
= Television =
| class="wikitable sortable" |
| style="background:#b0c4de; text-align:center;"
! Year ! Title ! Role ! Notes |
| 1956–1959
|MP Sergeant Kennedy |14 episodes |
| rowspan="4"|1959
|Lee Nelson |Episode: "Prisoner of Moon Mesa" |
| Colt .45
|Hank |Episode: "The Rival Gun" |
| The Deputy
|Tex |Episode: "The Big Four" |
| Sugarfoot
|Sykes |Episode: "The Canary Kid, Inc." |
| rowspan="10"|1960
|Emil |Episode: "The Blacksmith" |
| Route 66
|Thad Skinner |Pilot Episode: "Black November" |
| Peter Gunn
|Karl |Episode: "The Crossbow" |
| Sugarfoot
|Ross Kuhn |Episode: "Funeral at Forty Mile" |
| Shotgun Slade
|Tex |Episode: "The Spanish Box" |
| Laramie
|Gallagher Henchman |Episode: "Duel at Alta Mesa" |
| Maverick
|Deputy Jones |Episode: "Hadley's Hunters" |
| Lawman
|Burt |Episode: "To Capture the West" |
| rowspan="2"|Have Gun – Will Travel
|Tarnitzer |Episode: "The Legacy" |
| Lieutenant John Bryson
|Episode: "A Head of Hair" |
| rowspan="10"|1961
|Sheriff Zeke Armitage |Episode: "The Fourth Man" |
| rowspan="4"|Have Gun – Will Travel
|Preston |Episode: "The Road" |
| Deke
|Episode: "The Vigil" |
| Rud Saxon
|Episode: "A Proof of Life" |
| Brother Grace
|Episode: "Squatter's Rights" |
| Gunsmoke
|Pat Swooner |Episode: "Big Man" |
| The Untouchables
|Birdie |Episode: "The King of Champagne" |
| Gunslinger
|Sheriff |Episode: "The Buried People" |
| Bonanza
|Peter Long |Episode: "The Infernal Machine" |
| Gunsmoke
|Jake Bayloe |Episode: "Kitty Shot" |
| rowspan="7"|1962
|Hyram Killgore |Episode: "One for All" |
| Rawhide
|George Wales |Episode: "The Peddler" |
| Gunsmoke
|Hug |Episode: "The Boys" |
| Have Gun – Will Travel
|Big John |Episode: "Don't Shoot the Piano Player" |
| Going My Way
|Mike |Episode: "A Man for Mary" |
| Death Valley Days
|Steamboat Sully |Episode: "Miracle at Whiskey Gulch" |
| Outlaws
|Joe Ferris |Episode: "Farewell Performance" |
| rowspan="5"|1963
|State Police Detective |Episode: "The Big House" |
| Have Gun – Will Travel
|Brother Grace |Episode: "The Eve of St. Elmo" |
| Dr. Kildare
|Joe Cramer |Episode: "To Each His Own Prison" |
| Perry Mason
|George Spangler |Episode: "The Case of the Greek Goddess" |
| The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters
|Angus |Episode: "The Day of the Long Night" |
| 1963–1964
|Big Frenchy |Episodes: "French Leave for McHale", "The Return of Big Frenchy" |
| rowspan="4"|1964
|Gunsmoke |Cyrus |Episode: "Crooked Mile" |
| Bonanza
|Waldo Watson |Episode: "The Scapegoat" |
| The Virginian
|Jack Marshman |Episode: "A Gallows for Sam Horn" |
| Gunsmoke
|Warden Stark |Episode: "The Warden" |
| rowspan="4"|1965
|Zach Morgan |S2/E11 "A Rope for Mingo" |
| Laredo
|Jess Moran |Episode: "Pride of the Rangers" |
| The Virginian
|Tom "Bear" Suchette |Episode: "Nobility of Kings" |
| A Man Called Shenandoah
|Mitchell Canady |Episode: "A Special Talent for Killing" |
| rowspan="5"|1966
|Gunsmoke |Ben Payson |Episode: "Harvest" |
| The Legend of Jesse James
|Blodgett |Episode: "Return to Lawrence" |
| Dr. Kildare
|Sergeant Hensley |Episodes: "Mercy or Murder", "Strange Sort of Accident" |
| The Virginian
|Huck Harkness |Episode: "The Trail to Ashley Mountain" |
| The Big Valley
|Jack Thatcher |Episode: "Barbary Red" |
| 1967
|Crandell |Episode: "Thief Catcher" |
| rowspan="2"|1971
|Father Samuel Cavanaugh |Episode: "The Priest Killer" |
| Sarge
|Father Samuel Patrick "Sarge" Cavanaugh (Swanson) |16 episodes |
| 1972
|Brad Wilkes |Television Film |
| 1974
|Sam Hadley |Television film |
| 1975
|Bumper Morgan |24 episodes |
| 1979
|Backstairs at the White House |President Warren G. Harding |Episode: #1.2 |
| 1981
|Himself/host |Episode: "George Kennedy/Miles Davis" |
| 1983
|Adam Cobb |Episode: "God Child/Curtain Call" |
| 1984
|Charles 'Charley' Riley |Television film |
| 1986
|Himself |Episodes: "Reel Murder" parts 1 & 2 |
| 1988–1991
|67 episodes |
| 1994
|Judge J.T. "Rope" Calder |Episode: "Judgement Day" |
| rowspan="2"|1995
|Al Scali |Episode: "The Golden Years" |
| The Gambler Part III: The Legend Continues
|General Nelson Miles |
| rowspan="3"|1996
|Himself |Episode: "What About Larry?" |
| The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest
|General Axton |Episode: "DNA Doomsday" |
| Dallas: J.R. Returns
|Carter McKay |
| 1998
|Carter McKay |Television film |
| 2003
|Albert Miller |Episodes: #1.7762, #1.7763, #1.7764 |
| 2004
|The Complete History of U.S. Wars 1700–2004 |Host |8 episodes |
| 2010
|Albert Miller (ghost) |Episode: #1.9553 |
Awards and nominations
Honors
File:George Kennedy (handprints in cement).jpg at Walt Disney World's Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park.]]
file:George Kennedy's Star.JPG]]
For his contributions to motion pictures, Kennedy received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6352 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.
Writing career
Kennedy wrote three books. In 1983, he wrote the murder mystery Murder On Location, set on a film shoot. A second novel, Murder on High, was released in 1984. In 2011, he wrote his autobiography, Trust Me.{{cite news| url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carole-mallory/review-trust-me-by-george_b_1501310.html| title=Review: 'Trust Me' by George Kennedy| journal=The Huffington Post| date=May 14, 2012| first=Carole| last=Mallory| access-date=February 29, 2016| archive-date=May 17, 2012| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120517040919/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carole-mallory/review-trust-me-by-george_b_1501310.html| url-status=live}}
Notes
{{reflist|group=N}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
{{Commons}}
- {{AFI person | 58849-George-Kennedy }}
- {{IMDb name}}
- {{Tcmdb name}}
{{Academy Award Best Supporting Actor}}
{{Portal bar|Biography|New York|Texas|California|Film|Television|Theatre|Radio}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kennedy, George}}
Category:20th-century American male actors
Category:21st-century American male actors
Category:American male film actors
Category:American male radio actors
Category:American male stage actors
Category:American male television actors
Category:American people of English descent
Category:American people of German descent
Category:American people of Irish descent
Category:Best Supporting Actor Academy Award winners
Category:Male actors from New York (state)
Category:Male Western (genre) film actors
Category:People from Eagle, Idaho