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George Kennedy
Age: 84
Height: 6' 3"
Birth Place: New York City, New York, USA
Born: Feb. 18th, 1925
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George Kennedy's Main TV Roles
NOTE: Complete List of Works can be found at
IMDB
BIOGRAPHY: A World War II veteran, sandy-haired, tall and burly George 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 has notched up an impressive 200+ appearances in both TV and film, and is 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 has remained busy in Hollywood and has lent his distinctive voice to the animated Cats Don't Dance (1997) and the children's action film Small Soldiers (1998). A Hollywod stalwart for nearly 50 years, he is one of the most enjoyable actors to watch on screen.
TRIVIA:
- He and Joan adopted their granddaughter in 1998, after their daughter was ruled unfit.
- He enlisted in the Army during World War II and went on to serve 16 years, both in combat, and in his later years, as an Armed Forces Radio and Television officer.
- In the early 1970s, Paramount had plans that were unrealized to remake _Double Indemnity (1944)_ (qv) with Kennedy in the 'Edward G. Robinson (I)' (qv) role.
- He is the only actor to appear in all four of the "Airport" movie series.
- Before his acting career really took off, he served as a military consultant on _"The Phil Silvers Show" (1955)_ (qv).
- As a US Army officer in WW2, he served under Gen. 'George S. Patton' (qv), and later went on to portray Patton in _Brass Target (1978)_ (qv).
- Has 4 adopted children
- Has a daughter Betty who was also an actor.
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