One of the most versatile actors to hit the screen, George Kennedy enjoyed through a long and varied career that took in all genres and all manner of roles. The award-winning actor has died at the age of 91.
Kennedy was born in New York in 1925 into a show business family; his father, George Harris Kennedy, was a musician and orchestra leader who died when his son was four. His mother, Helen A. Kennedy, had been a ballet dancer. So it's perhaps not surprising that the young Kennedy got into performing early, making his stage debut at the age of two and graduating from there to working in radio shows. But with the outbreak of World War II, he made the choice to serve his country, and stayed in the US Army for 16 years.
It was his military service that connected him with performing again, albeit in a roundabout way. A part of the team that opened the first Army Information Office, Kennedy ended up as an advisor on The Phil Silvers Show, and at Silvers' encouragement, he won a few tiny guest roles. From there, he started to score more and more work on television, notching up credits in vast array of shows including Maverick, The Tall Man, Perry Mason, Have Gun – Will Travel, McHale's Navy, Bonanza, Dr. Kildare, Ironside, The Love Boat, Dallas and The Commish.
On a similar track, he began winning parts in films following an uncredited role as a soldier in 1960's Spartacus. His proper film debut was in 1961's The Little Shepherd Of Kingdom Come, and proved he could turn his hand to both heavy drama and dry comedy. On the big screen, he starred with numerous heavyweights, and appears in the likes of Charade, In Harm's Way, The Dirty Dozen, the Airport films, Earthquake, The Eiger Sanction, The Delta Force and, most recently, 2014's Mark Wahlberg drama The Gambler.
He may be best known however, for two very different roles: Kennedy won an Oscar for playing the tough Dragline in Cool Hand Luke opposite Paul Newman and was the stalwart Captain Ed Hocken in the three Naked Gun movies, where his straight-faced solidity perfectly amped up the madness that was usually going on around him. He died in Idaho on Sunday morning, and is survived by his daughter and two grandchildren.