George Kennedy, Oscar Winner for 'Cool Hand Luke,' Dies
at 91
The Hollywood Reporter
By Mike Barnes and Duane Byrge
2/29/2016
The burly actor played bad guys in such films as
'Charade' and 'Thunderbolt & Lightfoot' before memorably playing against
type in the 'Naked Gun' movies.
George Kennedy, a bear of a man who won an Oscar for his
performance as the sadistic chain gang prisoner Dragline in Cool Hand Luke and
delighted audiences as a dimwitted police captain in the zany Naked Gun
comedies, has died. He was 91.
Kennedy died Sunday morning in Boise, Idaho, his
grandson, Cory Schenkel, said on his Facebook page.
Until his recognition in Cool Hand Luke (1967), Kennedy
was usually cast as a tough guy. Following his Oscar win for best supporting
actor, he went on to star in The Guns of the Magnificent Seven (1969) and
received second billing in such films as The Good Guys and the Bad Guys (1969)
with Robert Mitchum; Dirty Dingus Magee (1970) with Frank Sinatra; Fools’
Parade (1971) with James Stewart; and The Eiger Sanction (1975) with Clint
Eastwood, a frequent co-star.
A former Army career soldier, Kennedy played a series of
heavies in the movies. He attacked Cary Grant with a steel claw in Stanley
Donen's Charade (1963), pursued Joan Crawford with an ax in Strait-Jacket
(1964), attempted to assassinate Gregory Peck in Mirage (1965) and kicked Jeff
Bridges to death in Thunderbolt & Lightfoot (1974).
The 6-foot-4, barrel-chested New Yorker also appeared as
airplane mechanic Joe Patroni in the star-studded disaster thriller Airport
(1970) and its three sequels.
Along with Leslie Nielsen, another actor with a
straight-arrow reputation, Kennedy played comically against type as Captain Ed
Hocken (replacing Alan North from the TV show) in the antic Jim Abrahams/Zucker
Brothers spoofs The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988), The
Naked Gun 2 ½: The Smell of Fear (1991) and The Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final
Insult (1994).
On television, the sandy-haired Irish-American starred in
two short-lived series in the 1970s — as a homicide detective turned priest in
NBC’s Sarge and as L.A. beat cop Bumper Morgan on CBS’ The Blue Knight, based
on the Joseph Wambaugh best-seller. He also played Ewing family nemesis Carter
McKay from 1988-91 on the CBS primetime soap Dallas.
Recently, big George appeared in the films Another Happy
Day (2011) and Mark Wahlberg's The Gambler (2014).
George Kennedy Jr. was born Feb. 18, 1925, in New York
City. His father was a pianist and a composer/conductor at the Proctor’s
theater in Manhattan, and his mother danced with vaudeville’s Le Ballet
Classique. He made his acting debut at age 2 in a touring company of Bringing
Up Father, traveling with the show for two years, and later voiced children’s
radio shows.
Following high school graduation, Kennedy enlisted in the
Army in 1943 with the hope of becoming a pilot in the Army Air Corps. He wound
up in the infantry, served under Gen. George Patton and distinguished himself
with his valor: He won two Bronze stars and four rows of combat and service
ribbons. After World War II, a bizarre medical condition — his left leg was
shorter than his right by three inches — left him in traction for two years.
(Kennedy would later play Patton, the target of an
assassination plot, in 1978's Brass Target opposite Sophia Loren, John
Cassavetes and Robert Vaughn.)
In the mid-1950s after re-enlisting, Kennedy worked in
Armed Forces Radio and Television, and that got him a job in New York as
technical adviser (and a few uncredited appearances) on the army-camp comedy
Sgt. Bilko. Watching Phil Silvers and show creator Ned Hiken work whetted his
appetite for acting. Additional good fortune arrived when the production company’s
secretary referred him to a chiropractor who alleviated his leg and back
problems.
With 30 percent disability after 15 years of service,
Kennedy moved to Hollywood in 1959 and played an array of toughs who could go
up against such stars of TV Westerns as 6-foot-7 James Arness in Gunsmoke,
6-foot-6 Clint Walker in Cheyenne and 6-foot-6 Chuck Connors in The Rifleman.
“The big guys were on TV and they needed big lumps to eat
up,” Kennedy said in a 1971 interview. “All I had to do was show up on the set,
and I got beaten up.”
Of course, he fought Paul Newman early on in Stuart
Rosenberg’s drama Cool Hand Luke as Dragline, the leader of the prisoners who
gives Newman's character his nickname.
“The marvelous thing about that movie,” Kennedy recalled
in a 1978 interview, “was that as my part progresses, I changed from a bad guy
to a good guy. The moguls in Hollywood must have said, ‘Hey, this fellow can do
something besides be a bad guy.’ ”
Kennedy’s vast body of work also includes Spartacus
(1960); Lonely Are the Brave (1962); the John Wayne classic The Sons of Katie
Elder (1965); The Dirty Dozen (1967); The Boston Strangler (1968); Earthquake
(1974); Death on the Nile (1978), Albert Brooks’ Modern Romance (1981), in
which he played himself as the star of an atrocious sci-fi film; Bolero (1984)
opposite Bo Derek; Small Soldiers (1997), in which he voiced Brick Bazooka; and
Wim Wenders’ Don’t Come Knocking (2005).
He appeared in NBC's See How They Run (1964), which is
considered the first movie made for TV. He also played President Warren G.
Harding in the 1979 miniseries Backstairs at the White House and had a
long-standing role on the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless.
Kennedy's wife, Joan, died in September.
KENNEDY, George
(George Kennedy Jr.)
Born:
2/18/1925, New York City, New York, U.S.A.
Died:
2/28/2016, Boise, Idaho, U.S.A.
George
Kennedy’s westerns – actor:
Cheyenne (TV) – 1959 (Lee Nelson)
Colt .45 (TV) – 1959 (Hank)
The Deputy (TV) – 1959 (Tex)
Sugarfoot (TV) – 1959, 1960 (Sykes, Ross Kuhn)
Gunsmoke (TV) – 1960, 1961, 1962, 1964, 1966 (Emil, Jake
Bayloe, Pat Swarner, Hug, Stark, Cyrus, Ben Payson)
Have Gun – Will Travel (TV) – 1960, 1961, 1963 (Lt.
Bryson, Sam Tarnitzer, Deke, Rud Saxon, Brother Grace, Big Jim,
Laramie (TV) – 1960 (Gallagher henchman)
Lawman (TV) – 1960 (Burt)
Maverick (TV) – 1960 (Deputy Jones)
Riverboat (TV) – 1960 (Gunner Slagle)
Shotgun Slade (TV) – 1960 (Tex)
The Tall Man (TV) – 1960, 1962 (Cyrus Canfield)
Bat Masterson (TV) – 1961 (Sheriff Zeke Armitage)
Bonanza (TV) – 1961, 1964 (Peter Long, Waldo Watson)
Gunslinger (TV) – 1961 (Sheriff)
Klondike (TV) – 1961 (Ira Shallop)
Lonely Are the Brave – 1962 (Deputy Sheriff Gutierrez)
Death Valley Days (TV) – 1962 (Steamboat Sully)
Outlaws (TV) – 1962 (Joe Ferris)
Rawhide (TV) – 1962 (George Wales)
Tales of Wells Fargo (TV) – 1962 (Hawk)
The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters (TV) – 1963 (Angus)
The Virginian (TV) – 1964, 1965, 1966 (Jack, Tom 'Bear'
Suchette, Huck Harkness)
Shenandoah – 1965 (Col. Fairchild)
The Sons of Katie Elder – 1965 (Curley)
Daniel Boone (TV) – 1965 (Zach Morgan)
Laredo (TV) – 1965 (Jess Moran)
A Man Called Shenandoah (TV) – 1965 (Mitchell Canady)
The Big Valley (TV) – 1966 (Jack Thatcher)
The Legend of Jesse James (TV) – 1966 (Blodgett)
The Ballad of Josie – 1967 (Arch Ogden)
Bandolero! – 1968 (Sheriff July Johnson)
The Good Guys and the Bad Guys – 1969 (McKay)
Guns of the Magnificent Seven – 1969 (Chris)
Dirty Dingus Magee – 1970 (Herkimer 'Hoke' Birdsill)
Cahill U.S. Marshal – 1973 (Fraser)
A Cry in the Wilderness – 1974 (Sam Hadley)
The Gunfighters (TV) – 1987 (Deke Turner)
Kenny Rogers as The Gambler, Part III: The Legend
Continues (TV) – 1987 (Gen. Nelson Miles)
Lonesome Dove: The Series (TV) – 1994 (Judge J.T. 'Rope'
Calder)
Santo Bugito (TV) – 1995 [the voice of Ralph]
Dobe and a Company of Heroes (TV) – 2002 [himself]
Don't Come Knocking - 2005 (Director)
Three Bad Men – 2005 (Ed Fiske)
Truce – 2005 (Dr. Peter Gannon)
The Man Who Came Back – 2008 (Judge Duke)
Mad Mad Wagon Party – 2010 (JB Scotch)
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