George Kennedy

George Kennedy
in Charade (1963)
Born	February 18, 1925 (1925-02-18) (age 84) New York City, New York

George Harris Kennedy, Jr.^[1] (born February 18, 1925) is an American actor who has appeared in over 200 film and television productions. He is perhaps most familiar as the convict Dragline in Cool Hand Luke (for which he won an Academy Award), airline troubleshooter Joe Patroni in the Airport series of disaster movies from the 1970s and as Captain Ed Hocken in the Naked Gun series of comedy films.

Early life

Kennedy was born in New York into a show business family. His father, George Harris Kennedy, a musician and orchestra leader, died when Kennedy was four years old.^[2] He was raised by his mother, Helen A. (née Kieselbach), a ballet dancer.^[1][3] He made his stage debut at the age of two, later becoming a radio performer. Kennedy put aside show business during World War II and spent sixteen years in the United States Army, seeing combat and working in the Armed Forces radio. He was involved with the opening of the first Army Information Office,^[4] which provided technical assistance to films and TV shows.^[4] After retiring from the military (reportedly because of a back injury), Kennedy found his way back to the entertainment industry.

Career

The handprints of George Kennedy in front of The Great Movie Ride at Walt Disney World's Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park.

Kennedy became a technical advisor for the television series Sergeant Bilko, where his acting career began with a few one-line parts.^[4] After a very brief appearance in 1960's blockbuster Spartacus, his film career began in 1961 in The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come. He then appeared in several prominent Hollywood movies, including Charade (1963) opposite Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Walter Matthau, and James Coburn; 1964's Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte, opposite Bette Davis, and in such popular 1965 films as the crash-survivor drama The Flight of the Phoenix with James Stewart and the war story In Harm's Way with John Wayne.

He made numerous television appearances on shows like The Andy Griffith Show, Perry Mason, Bonanza, McHale's Navy and Gunsmoke. He portrayed the character "Blodgett" in a 1966 episode "Return to Lawrence" of the ABC western series The Legend of Jesse James, starring Christopher Jones in the title role.

Then came a career-changing performance as Kennedy won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Cool Hand Luke (1967). He played "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.

He followed with films such as The Dirty Dozen, Bandolero! and The Boston Strangler. In 1970 he appeared in the Academy Award-winning disaster story Airport, in which he played one of its key characters, airline troubleshooter Joe Patroni. He reprised this role in Airport 1975 and in two sequels.

Continuing to work with some of the biggest names in the business, Kennedy co-starred with Clint Eastwood in a pair of films, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot and The Eiger Sanction and with an ensemble cast including Charlton Heston and Ava Gardner in the disaster film Earthquake. He was part of an all-star cast in the Agatha Christie mystery Death on the Nile in 1978, joining the likes of David Niven, Peter Ustinov, Angela Lansbury and Bette Davis.

In 1984, Kennedy starred opposite Bo Derek in the box-office bomb Bolero. He made other minor films including Savage Dawn, The Delta Force, and Creepshow 2 before connecting in the comedy hit The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! in 1988, playing Captain Ed Hocken opposite Leslie Nielsen's comical cop Frank Drebin. There were two sequels in which Kennedy co-starred.

On television, Kennedy portrayed Carter McKay in the CBS prime time serial Dallas (1978-1991), appearing from 1988-1991. In the late 1990s, he promoted Breathasure tablets in television commercials with the quote, "I never go anywhere without my Breathasure." Around this time he reprised his role as McKay in the television films Dallas: JR Returns and Dallas: War of the Ewings.

In 1998, he voiced Brick Bazooka for the animated film Small Soldiers. He then made several independent films before making a 2003 comeback to television in the soap opera The Young and the Restless, playing the character Albert Miller. In 2005, he made a cameo appearance in the small film Don't Come Knocking, playing the director of an ill-fated Western.

Kennedy received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to motion pictures, located at 6352 Hollywood Blvd.

Personal life

Kennedy resides in Eagle, Idaho. He is married to Joan McCarthy and has a daughter, Shaunna, who has struggled with substance abuse. The couple adopted their granddaughter, Taylor,^[4] after her mother's incarceration.

Filmography

Television series

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: George Kennedy

• George Kennedy at the Internet Movie Database