George Kennedy
Photoplayd Industry Rating
Not enough rated films yet to compute a weighted score.
Roles are weighted by involvement: director 1.0, screenwriter 0.7, lead 0.8, supporting 0.4, crew 0.1.
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 Dirty Dozen (1967)
as Major Max Armbruster
Death on the Nile (1978)
as Andrew Pennington
Small Soldiers (1998)
as Brick Bazooka (voice)
The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
as Ed Hocken
Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult (1994)
as Ed Hocken
The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991)
as Ed Hocken
Cool Hand Luke (1967)
as Dragline
The Delta Force (1986)
as Father O'Malley
Charade (1963)
as Herman Scobie
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974)
as Red Leary
Earthquake (1974)
as Sgt. Lew Slade
Airport (1970)
as Joe Patroni
Intensive Care (1991)
as Dr. Bruckner
The Concorde... Airport '79 (1979)
as Joe Patroni
The Blue Knight (1975)
as Bumper Morgan
Airport 1975 (1974)
as Joe Patroni
Bandolero! (1968)
as Sheriff July Johnson
The Sons of Katie Elder (1965)
as Curley
The Gambler (2014)
as Ed
In Harm's Way (1965)
as Colonel Gregory
The Eiger Sanction (1975)
as Ben Bowman
The Flight of the Phoenix (1965)
as Bellamy
… tick… tick… tick… (1970)
as John Little
Cats Don't Dance (1997)
as L.B. Mammoth (voice)
Airport '77 (1977)
as Joe Patroni
The Jesse Owens Story (1984)
as Charles 'Charley' Riley
View from the Top (2003)
as Passenger Requesting Vodka (uncredited)
Don't Come Knocking (2005)
as Director
Creepshow 2 (1987)
as Ray Spruce
Dennis the Menace Strikes Again! (1998)
as Mr. Johnson
Demonwarp (1988)
as Bill Crafton
Another Happy Day (2011)
as Joe Baker
The Boston Strangler (1968)
as Det. Phil DiNatale
The Good Guys and the Bad Guys (1969)
as McKay
Lonely are the Brave (1962)
as Deputy Sheriff Gutierrez
The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968)
as Matt Burke
Bayou Ghost (1997)
as Officer Lowe
Just Before Dawn (1981)
as Roy McLean
Cahill: United States Marshal (1973)
as Abe Fraser
Mirage (1965)
as Willard
Top Line (1988)
as Heinrich Holzmann
Driving Me Crazy (1991)
as John McCready
Fools' Parade (1971)
as Dallas 'Doc' Council
Hurry Sundown (1967)
as Sheriff Coombs
Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)
as Foreman
Nightmare at Noon (1988)
as Sherrif Hanks
Uninvited (1988)
as Mike Harvey
Shenandoah (1965)
as Col. Fairchild
Sands of Oblivion (2007)
as John Tevis
Guns of the Magnificent Seven (1969)
as Chris
Lost Horizon (1973)
as Sam Cornelius
Hired to Kill (1990)
as Thomas
Bolero (1984)
as Cotton
Modern Romance (1981)
as George Kennedy / Zeron
Gunfight at Black Horses Canyon (1961)
as Hawk
The Ballad of Josie (1968)
as Arch Ogden
The Terror Within (1989)
as Hal
Island of the Blue Dolphins (1964)
as Aleut Captain
Death Ship (1980)
as Captain Ashland
Brain Dead (1990)
as Vance
The Double McGuffin (1979)
as Chief Talasek
The Man Who Came Back (2008)
as Judge Duke
Ministry of Vengeance (1989)
as Rev. Hughes
Airports (2025)
Actor
Savage Dawn (1985)
as Tick Rand
The Archer: Fugitive from the Empire (1981)
as Brakus
Wacko (1982)
as Mr. Doctor Graves
Good Cops, Bad Cops (1990)
Actor
The Boneyard Collection (2008)
as Professor Zebediah Jones (segment "The Devil's Due at Midnight")
The Human Factor (1975)
as John Kinsdale
Proof of the Man (1977)
as Ken Shuftan
Mean Dog Blues (1978)
as Captain Omar Kinsman
Dirty Dingus Magee (1970)
as Herkimer 'Hoke' Birdsill
Monster Makers (2003)
as Dexter Brisbane
Mayumi: Virgin Terrorist (1990)
as Bahraini Investigator
Born to Race (1988)
as Vincent Duplain
Steel (1979)
as Big Lew Cassidy
Radioactive Dreams (1986)
as Spade Chandler
The Priest Killer (1971)
as Father Samuel Cavanaugh
The Gambler: The Legend Continues (1987)
as General Nelson Miles
Virus (1980)
as Admiral Conway
2Everything2Terrible2: Tokyo Drift (2010)
as (archive footage)
The Bull of the West (1972)
as 'Bear' Suchette
Death on the Nile: Making of Featurette (1978)
as Self
Hotwire (1980)
as Farley & Harley Fontenot
Chattanooga Choo Choo (1984)
as Bert
Gaily, Gaily (1969)
as Axel P. Johanson
The Gunfighters (1987)
as Deke Turner
The Man from the Diners' Club (1963)
as George
Hangfire (1991)
as Warden Barles
Zig Zag (1970)
as Paul R. Cameron
Men in White (1998)
as Army
The Lion Roars Again (1975)
as Self
The Jupiter Menace (1982)
as Himself
Brass Target (1978)
as Gen. George S. Patton
Dallas: War of The Ewings (1998)
as Carter McKay
Armed and Deadly: The Making of 'The Dirty Dozen' (2006)
as Self
WWE SummerSlam 1994 (1994)
as Himself
Six Days in Paradise (2010)
as Monty Crenshaw
Counterforce (1988)
as Vince Colby
International Airport (1985)
as Rudy Van Leuven
A Rare Breed (1984)
Actor
Dallas: J.R. Returns (1996)
as Carter McKay
Esmeralda Bay (1989)
as Wilson
See How They Run (1964)
as Rudy
Strait-Jacket (1964)
as Leo Krause
A Cry in the Wilderness (1974)
as Sam Hadley
Deliver Us from Evil (1973)
as Walter 'Cowboy' McAdams
What Price Victory (1988)
as Big Buck Brayton
The Pink Jungle (1968)
as Sammy Ryderbeit
McHale's Navy (1964)
as Henri Le Clerc
Sarge: The Badge or the Cross (1971)
as Sarge Swanson
Half Nelson (1985)
as Parsons
Sonic Boom (1974)
as Ben Dover
Hollyweird (1998)
as George Kennedy
A Natural Born World-Shaker: The Making of 'Cool Hand Luke' (2008)
as Self
Final Shot: The Hank Gathers Story (1992)
as Father Dave Hagan
A Great American Tragedy (1972)
as Brad Wilkes
Liberty (1986)
as Seamus Reilly
Three Bad Men (2005)
as Ed Fiske
Distant Justice (1992)
as Tom Bradfield
Search and Destroy (1979)
as Anthony Fusqua
The Little Shepherd Of Kingdom Come (1961)
as Nathan Dillon
Truce (2005)
as Dr. Peter Gannon
Private Road: No Trespassing (1988)
as Sam Milshaw
Rigged (1985)
as Ben Wheeler