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
Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult (1994)
as Ed Hocken
Small Soldiers (1998)
as Brick Bazooka (voice)
The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991)
as Ed Hocken
Death on the Nile (1978)
as Andrew Pennington
Cool Hand Luke (1967)
as Dragline
The Delta Force (1986)
as Father O'Malley
The Dirty Dozen (1967)
as Major Max Armbruster
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974)
as Red Leary
The Gambler (2014)
as Ed
Charade (1963)
as Herman Scobie
The Eiger Sanction (1975)
as Ben Bowman
Earthquake (1974)
as Sgt. Lew Slade
The Boston Strangler (1968)
as Det. Phil DiNatale
The Sons of Katie Elder (1965)
as Curley
The Flight of the Phoenix (1965)
as Bellamy
Creepshow 2 (1987)
as Ray Spruce
View from the Top (2003)
as Passenger Requesting Vodka (uncredited)
Cats Don't Dance (1997)
as L.B. Mammoth (voice)
Airport (1970)
as Joe Patroni
Dennis the Menace Strikes Again! (1998)
as Mr. Johnson
Bandolero! (1968)
as Sheriff July Johnson
Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)
as Foreman
Airport 1975 (1974)
as Joe Patroni
Cahill: United States Marshal (1973)
as Abe Fraser
Airport '77 (1977)
as Joe Patroni
The Concorde... Airport '79 (1979)
as Joe Patroni
In Harm's Way (1965)
as Colonel Gregory
Shenandoah (1965)
as Col. Fairchild
Guns of the Magnificent Seven (1969)
as Chris
Lonely are the Brave (1962)
as Deputy Sheriff Gutierrez
Death Ship (1980)
as Captain Ashland
Virus (1980)
as Admiral Conway
Bolero (1984)
as Cotton
Driving Me Crazy (1991)
as John McCready
Fools' Parade (1971)
as Dallas 'Doc' Council
Just Before Dawn (1981)
as Roy McLean
Don't Come Knocking (2005)
as Director
Mirage (1965)
as Willard
Another Happy Day (2011)
as Joe Baker
The Good Guys and the Bad Guys (1969)
as McKay
Strait-Jacket (1964)
as Leo Krause
Proof of the Man (1977)
as Ken Shuftan
Demonwarp (1988)
as Bill Crafton
Hurry Sundown (1967)
as Sheriff Coombs
Lost Horizon (1973)
as Sam Cornelius
Sands of Oblivion (2007)
as John Tevis
The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968)
as Matt Burke
The Jesse Owens Story (1984)
as Charles 'Charley' Riley
Savage Dawn (1985)
as Tick Rand
Uninvited (1988)
as Mike Harvey
Nightmare at Noon (1988)
as Sherrif Hanks
2Everything2Terrible2: Tokyo Drift (2010)
as (archive footage)
The Blue Knight (1975)
as Bumper Morgan
Brass Target (1978)
as Gen. George S. Patton
Modern Romance (1981)
as George Kennedy / Zeron
Brain Dead (1990)
as Vance
The Ballad of Josie (1968)
as Arch Ogden
The Bull of the West (1972)
as 'Bear' Suchette
Top Line (1988)
as Heinrich Holzmann
The Gambler: The Legend Continues (1987)
as General Nelson Miles
Men in White (1998)
as Army
Bayou Ghost (1997)
as Officer Lowe
The Man Who Came Back (2008)
as Judge Duke
Good Cops, Bad Cops (1990)
Actor
Steel (1979)
as Big Lew Cassidy
Ministry of Vengeance (1989)
as Rev. Hughes
… tick… tick… tick… (1970)
as John Little
McHale's Navy (1964)
as Henri Le Clerc
Airports (2025)
Actor
The Man from the Diners' Club (1963)
as George
The Priest Killer (1971)
as Father Samuel Cavanaugh
Wacko (1982)
as Mr. Doctor Graves
The Double McGuffin (1979)
as Chief Talasek
Monster Makers (2003)
as Dexter Brisbane
Radioactive Dreams (1986)
as Spade Chandler
The Terror Within (1989)
as Hal
Hired to Kill (1990)
as Thomas
Half Nelson (1985)
as Parsons
Intensive Care (1991)
as Dr. Bruckner
Dirty Dingus Magee (1970)
as Herkimer 'Hoke' Birdsill
The Lion Roars Again (1975)
as Self
The Archer: Fugitive from the Empire (1981)
as Brakus
WWE SummerSlam 1994 (1994)
as Himself
The Human Factor (1975)
as John Kinsdale
Armed and Deadly: The Making of 'The Dirty Dozen' (2006)
as Self
Dallas: War of The Ewings (1998)
as Carter McKay
The Boneyard Collection (2008)
as Professor Zebediah Jones (segment "The Devil's Due at Midnight")
Mean Dog Blues (1978)
as Captain Omar Kinsman
International Airport (1985)
as Rudy Van Leuven
Island of the Blue Dolphins (1964)
as Aleut Captain
Hangfire (1991)
as Warden Barles
Counterforce (1988)
as Vince Colby
A Great American Tragedy (1972)
as Brad Wilkes
Gaily, Gaily (1969)
as Axel P. Johanson
Liberty (1986)
as Seamus Reilly
The Gunfighters (1987)
as Deke Turner
Sonic Boom (1974)
as Ben Dover
Mayumi: Virgin Terrorist (1990)
as Bahraini Investigator
Zig Zag (1970)
as Paul R. Cameron
The Pink Jungle (1968)
as Sammy Ryderbeit
Three Bad Men (2005)
as Ed Fiske
Final Shot: The Hank Gathers Story (1992)
as Father Dave Hagan
Hotwire (1980)
as Farley & Harley Fontenot
Dallas: J.R. Returns (1996)
as Carter McKay
Chattanooga Choo Choo (1984)
as Bert
Hollyweird (1998)
as George Kennedy
See How They Run (1964)
as Rudy
Sarge: The Badge or the Cross (1971)
as Sarge Swanson
A Cry in the Wilderness (1974)
as Sam Hadley
Esmeralda Bay (1989)
as Wilson
A Rare Breed (1984)
Actor
Gunfight at Black Horses Canyon (1961)
as Hawk
Distant Justice (1992)
as Tom Bradfield
Born to Race (1988)
as Vincent Duplain
Six Days in Paradise (2010)
as Monty Crenshaw
The Little Shepherd Of Kingdom Come (1961)
as Nathan Dillon
Death on the Nile: Making of Featurette (1978)
as Self
Deliver Us from Evil (1973)
as Walter 'Cowboy' McAdams
The Jupiter Menace (1982)
as Himself
What Price Victory (1988)
as Big Buck Brayton
Search and Destroy (1979)
as Anthony Fusqua
Private Road: No Trespassing (1988)
as Sam Milshaw
A Natural Born World-Shaker: The Making of 'Cool Hand Luke' (2008)
as Self
Rigged (1985)
as Ben Wheeler
Truce (2005)
as Dr. Peter Gannon