| George Kennedy | |
| Birth Name: | George Harris Kennedy Jr. |
| Birth Date: | 18 February 1925 |
| Birth Place: | New York City, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Middleton, Idaho, U.S. |
| Occupation: | Actor |
| Years Active: | 1956–2014 |
| 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 he had a significant role in 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 was the only actor to appear in all four films in the Airport series, reprising the role of Joe Patroni three times. He also played Police Captain Ed Hocken in the Naked Gun series of comedy films, and corrupt oil tycoon Carter McKay on the original Dallas television series.
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.[1] He was raised by his mother, Helen A. (née Kieselbach), a ballet dancer.[2] 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.[3]
Kennedy graduated in 1943 from Chaminade High School in Mineola, Long Island, New York.[4]
Kennedy enlisted in the United States Army during World War II in 1943. He served 16 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.
His first notable screen role was a military policeman on the TV sitcom The Phil Silvers Show, where 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 played one of its main characters, airline troubleshooter Joe Patroni. He reprised this role in Airport 1975, Airport '77 and The Concorde ... Airport '79, the only cast member to appear in each film of the series.
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.[5]
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.[6]
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.
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.[7]
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" tablets in radio and television commercials.[8] [9] Around this time, he reprised his role as McKay in the television films and . 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.
Kennedy was married four times, to three women. In the 1940s, he married Dorothy Gillooly, who had served in the Women's Army Corps.[10] 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, son Christopher and daughter Karianna. 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), daughter of John Castagna and former wife of William James McCarthy. They remained married until her death in September 2015. The couple adopted three children, including Shaunna Kennedy, who later developed drug-abuse problems. In 1998, after Shaunna was declared unfit to raise her daughter Taylor, Kennedy and Joan also adopted this grandchild.
Kennedy was friends with James Stewart, and he provided the voiceover in a mini-tribute to Stewart on TCM.[11] Kennedy was an aviator who enjoyed flying and owned a Cessna 210 and Beechcraft Bonanza.[12] 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.
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.[13] He had a history of heart disease.[14]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1961 | The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come | Nathan Dillon | directed by Andrew V. McLaglen[15] | |
| 1962 | Lonely Are the Brave | Deputy Sheriff Gutierrez | directed by David Miller[16] | |
| The Silent Witness | Gus Jordan | |||
| 1963 | The Man from the Diners' Club | George | directed by Frank Tashlin[17] | |
| Charade | Herman Scobie | directed by Stanley Donen[18] | ||
| 1964 | Strait-Jacket | Leo Krause | directed and co-produced by William Castle[19] | |
| McHale's Navy | Henri Le Clerc | based on the 1962–1966 sitcom of the same name and directed by Edward Montagne[20] | ||
| Island of the Blue Dolphins | Aleut Captain | directed by James B. Clark[21] | ||
| Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte | Foreman | directed and produced by Robert Aldrich[22] | ||
| 1965 | In Harm's Way | Colonel Gregory | produced and directed by Otto Preminger[23] | |
| Mirage | Willard | directed by Edward Dmytryk and based on the novel Fallen Angel written by Howard Fast under the pseudonym Walter Ericson[24] | ||
| Shenandoah | Colonel Fairchild | directed by Andrew V. McLaglen[25] | ||
| The Sons of Katie Elder | Curley | directed by Henry Hathaway[26] | ||
| The Flight of the Phoenix | Mike Bellamy | produced and directed by Robert Aldrich[27] and based on the 1964 novel The Flight of the Phoenix by Elleston Trevor | ||
| 1967 | Hurry Sundown | Sheriff Coombs | produced and directed by Otto Preminger[28] | |
| The Dirty Dozen | Major Max Armbruster | directed by Robert Aldrich[29] | ||
| Cool Hand Luke | Dragline | directed by Stuart Rosenberg[30] | ||
| The Ballad of Josie | Arch Ogden | directed by Andrew V. McLaglen[31] | ||
| 1968 | Bandolero! | Sheriff July Johnson | directed by Andrew V. McLaglen[32] | |
| The Pink Jungle | Sammy Ryderbeit | directed by Delbert Mann[33] | ||
| The Legend of Lylah Clare | Matt Burke | uncredited | ||
| The Boston Strangler | Det. Phil DiNatale | based on the true story of the Boston Strangler and the book by Gerold Frank; directed by Richard Fleischer[34] | ||
| 1969 | Guns of the Magnificent Seven | Chris Adams | directed by Paul Wendkos | |
| The Good Guys and the Bad Guys | Big John McKay | directed by Burt Kennedy[35] | ||
| Gaily, Gaily | Axel P. Johanson | directed by Norman Jewison and based on the autobiographical novel by Ben Hecht | ||
| 1970 | ...tick...tick...tick... | John Little | directed by Ralph Nelson[36] | |
| Airport | Joe Patroni | |||
| Zig Zag | Paul R. Camerondirected by Richard A. Colla[38] | |||
| Dirty Dingus Magee | Herkimer "Hoke" Birdsill | directed and produced by Burt Kennedy[39] | ||
| 1971 | Fools' Parade | Dallas "Doc" Council | directed by Andrew McLaglen[40] | |
| 1973 | Lost Horizon | Sam Cornelius | directed by Charles Jarrott[41] | |
| Cahill U.S. Marshal | Abe Fraser | directed by Andrew V. McLaglen[42] | ||
| 1974 | Thunderbolt and Lightfoot | Red Leary | written and directed by Michael Cimino[43] | |
| Airport 1975 | Joe Patroni | directed by Jack Smight[44] | ||
| Earthquake | Sergeant Lew Slade | directed and produced by Mark Robson[45] | ||
| 1975 | The Eiger Sanction | Ben Bowman | based on the novel of the same name by Trevanian and directed by and starring Clint Eastwood[46] | |
| The "Human" Factor | John Kinsdale | directed by Edward Dmytryk[47] [48] | ||
| 1977 | Airport '77 | Joe Patroni | directed by Jerry Jameson[49] | |
| Ningen no shōmei | Ken Shuftan | directed by Junya Satō[50] | ||
| 1978 | Mean Dog Blues | Captain Omar Kinsman | directed by Mel Stuart[51] | |
| Death on the Nile | Andrew Pennington | based on the novel of the same name, directed by John Guillermin, and adapted by Anthony Shaffer[52] | ||
| Brass Target | General George S. Patton | based on the novel The Algonquin Project by Frederick Nolan and directed by John Hough[53] | ||
| 1979 | Search and Destroy | Anthony Fusqua | directed by William Fruet[54] | |
| The Double McGuffin | Chief Talasek | directed by Joe Camp[55] | ||
| Steel | Big Lew Cassidy | directed by Steve Carver[56] | ||
| The Concorde ... Airport '79 | Captain Joe Patroni | directed by David Lowell Rich[57] | ||
| 1980 | Death Ship | Captain Ashland | directed by Alvin Rakoff[58] | |
| Virus | Admiral Conway | directed by Kinji Fukasaku[59] and based on a 1964 novel written by Sakyo Komatsu. | ||
| Hotwire | Farley & Harley Fontenot | |||
| 1981 | Just Before Dawn | Roy McLean | directed by Jeff Lieberman[60] | |
| Modern Romance | Himself; Zoron | directed by Albert Brooks | ||
| Brakus | written, directed and produced by Nicholas J. Corea | |||
| 1982 | Wacko | Mr. Doctor Graves | directed by Greydon Clark[61] | |
| The Jupiter Menace | Himself | documentary[62] | ||
| 1984 | Chattanooga Choo Choo | Bert | directed by Bruce Bilson[63] | |
| A Rare Breed | Nathan Hill | |||
| Bolero | Cotton | written and directed by John Derek[64] | ||
| Rigged | Ben | |||
| 1985 | Radioactive Dreams | Spade Chandler | directed by Albert Pyun[65] | |
| Savage Dawn | Tick Rand | directed by Simon Nuchtern[66] | ||
| 1986 | The Delta Force | Father O'Malley | directed by Menahem Golan[67] | |
| 1987 | Creepshow 2 | Ray Spruce | directed by Michael Gornick[68] | |
| The Gunfighters | Deke Turner | directed by Clay Borris[69] | ||
| Uninvited | Mike Harvey | |||
| 1988 | Born to Race | Vincent Duplain | ||
| Counterforce | Vince Colby | |||
| Demonwarp | Bill Crafton | |||
| Nightmare at Noon | Sheriff Hanks | |||
| Alien Terminator | Heinrich Holzmann | |||
| Captain Ed Hocken | start of the Naked Gun franchise | |||
| 1989 | The Terror Within | Hal | ||
| Ministry of Vengeance | Rev. Hughes | |||
| Esmeralda Bay | Wilson | directed by Jesús Franco | ||
| 1990 | Brain Dead | Vance | ||
| Hired to Kill | Thomas | |||
| Mayumi | Bahraini investigator | directed by Shin Sang-ok | ||
| 1991 | Hangfire | Warden E. Barles | ||
| Driving Me Crazy | John McCready | |||
| Captain Ed Hocken | ||||
| Intensive Care | Dr. Bruckner | |||
| 1992 | Father Dave | |||
| Distant Justice | Tom Bradfield | |||
| 1994 | Naked Gun : The Final Insult | Captain Ed Hocken | ||
| River of Stone | ||||
| 1997 | Cats Don't Dance | L.B. Mammoth | voice | |
| Bayou Ghost | Officer Lowe | |||
| 1998 | Small Soldiers | Brick Bazooka | voice | |
| Dennis the Menace Strikes Again | Grandpa Johnson | |||
| 2003 | View from the Top | Passenger Requesting Vodka | uncredited | |
| 2005 | Three Bad Men | Ed Fiske | ||
| Truce | Dr. Peter Gannon | |||
| Don't Come Knocking | director | |||
| 2007 | Sands of Oblivion | John Tevis | ||
| 2008 | The Man Who Came Back | Judge Duke | ||
| 2010 | Six Days in Paradise | Monty Crenshaw | ||
| Mad Mad Wagon Party | JB Scotch | |||
| 2011 | Another Happy Day | Joe Baker | ||
| 2014 | The Gambler | Ed |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1956–1959 | The Phil Silvers Show | MP Sergeant Kennedy | 14 episodes | |
| 1959 | Cheyenne | 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." | ||
| 1960 | Gunsmoke | 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" | ||
| Have Gun – Will Travel | Tarnitzer | Episode: "The Legacy" | ||
| Lieutenant John Bryson | Episode: "A Head of Hair" | |||
| 1961 | Bat Masterson | Sheriff Zeke Armitage | Episode: "The Fourth Man" | |
| 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" | ||
| 1962 | The Tall Man | 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" | ||
| 1963 | The Andy Griffith Show | 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 | McHale's Navy | Big Frenchy | Episodes: "French Leave for McHale", "The Return of Big Frenchy" | |
| 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" | ||
| 1965 | Daniel Boone | 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" | ||
| 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 | Tarzan | Crandell | Episode: "Thief Catcher" | |
| 1971 | Ironside | Father Samuel Cavanaugh | Episode: "The Priest Killer" | |
| Sarge | Father Samuel Patrick "Sarge" Cavanaugh (Swanson) | 16 episodes | ||
| 1974 | A Cry in the Wilderness | Sam Hadley | Television film | |
| 1975 | The Blue Knight | Bumper Morgan | 24 episodes | |
| 1979 | Backstairs at the White House | President Warren G. Harding | Episode: #1.2 | |
| 1981 | Saturday Night Live | Himself/host | Episode: "George Kennedy/Miles Davis" | |
| 1983 | Fantasy Island | Adam Cobb | Episode: "God Child/Curtain Call" | |
| 1984 | The Jesse Owens Story | Charles 'Charley' Riley | Television film | |
| 1986 | Benson | Himself | Episodes: "Reel Murder" parts 1 & 2 | |
| 1988–1991 | Dallas | Carter McKay | 67 episodes | |
| 1994 | Lonesome Dove | Judge J.T. "Rope" Calder | Episode: "Judgement Day" | |
| 1995 | The Commish | Al Scali | Episode: "The Golden Years" | |
| The Gambler Part III: The Legend Continues | General Nelson Miles | Television miniseries | ||
| 1996 | Wings | Himself | Episode: "What About Larry?" | |
| The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest | General Axton | Episode: "DNA Doomsday" | ||
| Carter McKay | Television film | |||
| 1998 | Carter McKay | Television film | ||
| 2003 | The Young and the Restless | Albert Miller | Episodes: #1.7762, #1.7763, #1.7764 | |
| 2004 | The Complete History of U.S. Wars 1700–2004 | Host | 8 episodes | |
| 2010 | The Young and the Restless | Albert Miller (ghost) | Episode: #1.9553 |
| Year | Category | Award | Work | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1967 | Academy Awards | Best Supporting Actor | Cool Hand Luke | ||
| 1967 | Laurel Awards | Top Male Supporting Performance | [70] | ||
| 1967 | Golden Globe Awards | Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture | [71] | ||
| 1970 | Airport | [72] | |||
| 1970 | Laurel Awards | Top Male Supporting Performance |
For his contributions to motion pictures, Kennedy received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6352 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.
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.[73]