image via YouTube.com
Actor George Kennedy has died at age 91. Perhaps best known for films like Cool Hand Luke, for which he won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 1968, as well as his roles in the Airport and Naked Gun movie franchises, Kennedy also had a storied career in television. He played the lead roles in the Sarge TV series, which was cancelled in 1972, by NBC, after one season, and The Blue Knight TV series, which was cancelled in 1976, after two seasons on CBS.
Born George Harris Kennedy, Jr. on February 18, 1925, Mr. Kennedy passed away in Idaho, at 4:30am, on February 28, 2016, just 10 days after his 91st birthday. TMZ reports it has confirmed the actor’s death with his grandson, Cory Schenkel.
From 1956 to 1959, Kennedy played MP Sgt. Kennedy on The Phil Silvers Show. He also took guest spots on many series, such as Peter Gunn, Maverick, Gunslinger, The Asphalt Jungle, Have Gun — Will Travel, Gunsmoke, and many, many more.
From 1988 to 1991, Kennedy played Carter McKay on Dallas. In the 2000s, he appeared on the CBS daytime drama, The Young and the Restless as Albert Miller, father of main character, Victor Newman (Eric Braeden). His last role was in the 2014 film, The Gambler, starring Mark Wahlberg.
Here is more on Mr. Kennedy, from CNN:
The New York-born Kennedy came by his military gravitas honestly; he served in World War II and spent 16 years in the U.S. Army, many of them with Armed Forces Radio. In the 1950s, he was an adviser to Phil Silvers’ “Sgt. Bilko” show and then started getting acting roles.
Among his early notable films were 1963’s “Charade,” in which he played one of the criminal gang threatening Audrey Hepburn’s character, and 1965’s “The Flight of the Phoenix,” in which he played a passenger on James Stewart’s stranded airplane.
He broke through with 1967’s “Cool Hand Luke,” in which he played Dragline, a convict who resists, and then becomes friendly with, Paul Newman’s Luke character.
“The marvelous thing about that movie was that as my part progresses, I changed from a bad guy to a good guy,” Kennedy said in 1978, according to the Hollywood Reporter. “The moguls in Hollywood must have said, ‘Hey, this fellow can do something besides be a bad guy.’ “
Please share your memories of Mr. Kennedy and his work, below.
