George Kennedy
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George Kennedy (February 18, 1925 — February 28, 2016) was a European-American businessman, entrepreneur, A World War II veteran, actor, adviser, radio dj, and author. Kennedy at one stage in his career cornered the market at playing tough, no-nonsense characters who were either quite crooked or possessed hearts of gold. Kennedy notched up an impressive 200+ appearances in both TV and film, and was well respected within the Hollywood community. He started out in TV westerns in the late 1950s and early 1960s: Have Gun - Will Travel (1957), Rawhide (1959), Maverick (1957), Colt .45 (1957), among others; before scoring minor roles in films including Lonely Are the Brave (1962), The Sons of Katie Elder (1965) and The Flight of the Phoenix (1965). The late 1960s was a very busy period for Kennedy, and he was strongly in favor with casting agents, appearing in Hurry Sundown (1967), The Dirty Dozen (1967) and scoring an Oscar win as Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Cool Hand Luke (1967). The disaster film boom of the 1970s was kind to Kennedy, too, and his talents were in demand for Airport(1970) and the three subsequent sequels, as a grizzled cop in Earthquake (1974), plus the buddy/road film Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974) as vicious bank robber Red Leary. The 1980s saw Kennedy appear in a mishmash of roles, playing various characters; however, Kennedy and Leslie Nielsen surprised everyone with their comedic talents in the hugely successful The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988), and the two screen veterans hammed it up again in, The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991), plus Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994). Kennedy remained busy in Hollywood and lent his distinctive voice to the animated Cats Don't Dance (1997) and the children's action film Small Soldiers (1998). A Hollywood stalwart for nearly 50 years, he is one of the most enjoyable actors to watch on screen. His last role was in the film The Gambler (2014), as Mark Wahlberg's character's grandfather. George Kennedy died on February 28, 2016 in Middleton, Idaho.
Known for
Credits
The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
as Ed Hocken
Small Soldiers (1998)
as Brick Bazooka (voice)
The Gambler (2014)
as Ed
Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult (1994)
as Ed Hocken
The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991)
as Ed Hocken
The Dirty Dozen (1967)
as Major Max Armbruster
Virus (1980)
as Admiral Conway
Death on the Nile (1978)
as Andrew Pennington
The Delta Force (1986)
as Father O'Malley
Bandolero! (1968)
as Sheriff July Johnson
Charade (1963)
as Herman Scobie
Cool Hand Luke (1967)
as Dragline
Guns of the Magnificent Seven (1969)
as Chris
Earthquake (1974)
as Sgt. Lew Slade
View from the Top (2003)
as Passenger Requesting Vodka (uncredited)
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974)
as Red Leary
The Eiger Sanction (1975)
as Ben Bowman
The Flight of the Phoenix (1965)
as Bellamy
The Sons of Katie Elder (1965)
as Curley
Dennis the Menace Strikes Again! (1998)
as Mr. Johnson
Cats Don't Dance (1997)
as L.B. Mammoth (voice)
Fools' Parade (1971)
as Dallas 'Doc' Council
Creepshow 2 (1987)
as Ray Spruce
Airport '77 (1977)
as Joe Patroni
Cahill: United States Marshal (1973)
as Abe Fraser
Airport (1970)
as Joe Patroni
Top Line (1988)
as Heinrich Holzmann
In Harm's Way (1965)
as Colonel Gregory
Airport 1975 (1974)
as Joe Patroni
Airports (2025)
Actor
The Concorde... Airport '79 (1979)
as Joe Patroni
Demonwarp (1988)
as Bill Crafton
Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)
as Foreman
Lonely are the Brave (1962)
as Deputy Sheriff Gutierrez
Ministry of Vengeance (1989)
as Rev. Hughes
Don't Come Knocking (2005)
as Director
Just Before Dawn (1981)
as Roy McLean
The Boston Strangler (1968)
as Det. Phil DiNatale
Intensive Care (1991)
as Dr. Bruckner
Uninvited (1988)
as Mike Harvey
2Everything2Terrible2: Tokyo Drift (2010)
as (archive footage)
Another Happy Day (2011)
as Joe Baker
Death Ship (1980)
as Captain Ashland
Shenandoah (1965)
as Col. Fairchild
The Ballad of Josie (1967)
as Arch Ogden
Nightmare at Noon (1988)
as Sherrif Hanks
… tick… tick… tick… (1970)
as John Little
Good Cops, Bad Cops (1990)
Actor
The Blue Knight (1975)
as Bumper Morgan
Proof of the Man (1977)
as Ken Shuftan
The Good Guys and the Bad Guys (1969)
as McKay
The Priest Killer (1971)
as Father Samuel Cavanaugh
The Double McGuffin (1979)
as Chief Talasek
Driving Me Crazy (1991)
as John McCready
Hurry Sundown (1967)
as Sheriff Coombs
Brass Target (1978)
as Gen. George S. Patton
Mayumi: Virgin Terrorist (1990)
as Bahraini Investigator
Bayou Ghost (1997)
as Officer Lowe
The Gambler: The Legend Continues (1987)
as General Nelson Miles
The Human Factor (1975)
as John Kinsdale
A Great American Tragedy (1972)
as Brad Wilkes
Strait-Jacket (1964)
as Leo Krause
Mirage (1965)
as Willard
Modern Romance (1981)
as George Kennedy / Zeron
Bolero (1984)
as Cotton
Wacko (1982)
as Mr. Doctor Graves
The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968)
as Matt Burke
The Archer: Fugitive from the Empire (1981)
as Brakus
McHale's Navy (1964)
as Henri Le Clerc
The Bull of the West (1972)
as 'Bear' Suchette
Lost Horizon (1973)
as Sam Cornelius
Savage Dawn (1985)
as Tick Rand
Six Days in Paradise (2010)
as Monty Crenshaw
Hotwire (1980)
as Farley & Harley Fontenot
Dallas: War of The Ewings (1998)
as Carter McKay
Island of the Blue Dolphins (1964)
as Aleut Captain
The Boneyard Collection (2008)
as Professor Zebediah Jones (segment "The Devil's Due at Midnight")
The Little Shepherd Of Kingdom Come (1961)
as Nathan Dillon
Radioactive Dreams (1986)
as Spade Chandler
Sands of Oblivion (2007)
as John Tevis
The Terror Within (1989)
as Hal
The Man from the Diners' Club (1963)
as George
Brain Dead (1990)
as Vance
Men in White (1998)
as Army
Gunfight at Black Horses Canyon (1961)
as Hawk
Hired to Kill (1990)
as Thomas
Steel (1979)
as Big Lew Cassidy
Death on the Nile: Making of Featurette (1978)
as Self
Hangfire (1991)
as Warden Barles
Dallas: J.R. Returns (1996)
as Carter McKay
See How They Run (1964)
as Rudy
The Jesse Owens Story (1984)
as Charles 'Charley' Riley
A Cry in the Wilderness (1974)
as Sam Hadley
The Pink Jungle (1968)
as Sammy Ryderbeit
Dirty Dingus Magee (1970)
as Herkimer 'Hoke' Birdsill
Liberty (1986)
as Seamus Reilly
Final Shot: The Hank Gathers Story (1992)
as Father Dave Hagan
WWE SummerSlam 1994 (1994)
as Himself
Half Nelson (1985)
as Parsons
Gaily, Gaily (1969)
as Axel P. Johanson
The Man Who Came Back (2008)
as Judge Duke
Mean Dog Blues (1978)
as Captain Omar Kinsman
Counterforce (1988)
as Vince Colby
Deliver Us from Evil (1973)
as Walter 'Cowboy' McAdams
Armed and Deadly: The Making of 'The Dirty Dozen' (2006)
as Self
Search and Destroy (1979)
as Anthony Fusqua
Private Road: No Trespassing (1988)
as Sam Milshaw
Three Bad Men (2005)
as Ed Fiske
Zig Zag (1970)
as Paul R. Cameron
Chattanooga Choo Choo (1984)
as Bert
What Price Victory (1988)
as Big Buck Brayton
The Jupiter Menace (1982)
as Himself
Hollyweird (1998)
as George Kennedy
Distant Justice (1992)
as Tom Bradfield
Monster Makers (2003)
as Dexter Brisbane
Sarge: The Badge or the Cross (1971)
as Sarge Swanson
The Lion Roars Again (1975)
as Self
International Airport (1985)
as Rudy Van Leuven
Sonic Boom (1974)
as Ben Dover
Born to Race (1988)
as Vincent Duplain
A Rare Breed (1984)
Actor
A Natural Born World-Shaker: The Making of 'Cool Hand Luke' (2008)
as Self
The Gunfighters (1987)
as Deke Turner
Esmeralda Bay (1989)
as Wilson
Truce (2005)
as Dr. Peter Gannon
Rigged (1985)
as Ben Wheeler