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