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