Acting
George Kennedy
EN, NL, KO, IT cinema · 127 credits
Born
18 February 1925
Died
28 February 2016 (aged 91)
Birthplace
New York City, New York, USA
Also known as George Harris Kennedy Jr. · جورج کندی
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
Filmography
Another Happy Day
as Joe Baker
2Everything2Terrible2: Tokyo Drift
as (archive footage)
Six Days in Paradise
as Monty Crenshaw
The Man Who Came Back
as Judge Duke
The Boneyard Collection
as Professor Zebediah Jones (segment "The Devil's Due at Midnight")
Sands of Oblivion
as John Tevis
Don't Come Knocking
as Director
Truce
as Dr. Peter Gannon
Three Bad Men
as Ed Fiske
Monster Makers
as Dexter Brisbane
View from the Top
as Passenger Requesting Vodka (uncredited)
Small Soldiers
as Brick Bazooka (voice)
Dennis the Menace Strikes Again!
as Mr. Johnson
Dallas: War of The Ewings
as Carter McKay
Hollyweird
as George Kennedy
Men in White
as Army
Cats Don't Dance
as L.B. Mammoth (voice)
Bayou Ghost
as Officer Lowe
Dallas: J.R. Returns
as Carter McKay
Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult
as Ed Hocken
WWE SummerSlam 1994
as Himself
Final Shot: The Hank Gathers Story
as Father Dave Hagan
Distant Justice
as Tom Bradfield
The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear
as Ed Hocken
Intensive Care
as Dr. Bruckner
Hangfire
as Warden Barles
Driving Me Crazy
as John McCready
Brain Dead
as Vance
Hired to Kill
as Thomas
Mayumi: Virgin Terrorist
as Bahraini Investigator
Ministry of Vengeance
as Rev. Hughes
Esmeralda Bay
as Wilson
Demonwarp
as Bill Crafton
Uninvited
as Mike Harvey
Nightmare at Noon
as Sherrif Hanks
Born to Race
as Vincent Duplain
Top Line
as Heinrich Holzmann
Private Road: No Trespassing
as Sam Milshaw
Counterforce
as Vince Colby
What Price Victory
as Big Buck Brayton
Creepshow 2
as Ray Spruce
The Gunfighters
as Deke Turner
The Gambler: The Legend Continues
as General Nelson Miles
The Delta Force
as Father O'Malley
Radioactive Dreams
as Spade Chandler
Liberty
as Seamus Reilly
Savage Dawn
as Tick Rand
International Airport
as Rudy Van Leuven
Half Nelson
as Parsons
Rigged
as Ben Wheeler
Bolero
as Cotton
The Jesse Owens Story
as Charles 'Charley' Riley
Wacko
as Mr. Doctor Graves
The Jupiter Menace
as Himself
Just Before Dawn
as Roy McLean
Modern Romance
as George Kennedy / Zeron
Death Ship
as Captain Ashland
Virus
as Admiral Conway
Hotwire
as Farley & Harley Fontenot
The Concorde... Airport '79
as Joe Patroni
Search and Destroy
as Anthony Fusqua
The Double McGuffin
as Chief Talasek
Steel
as Big Lew Cassidy
Death on the Nile
as Andrew Pennington
Brass Target
as Gen. George S. Patton
Mean Dog Blues
as Captain Omar Kinsman
Death on the Nile: Making of Featurette
1978
Death on the Nile: Making of Featurette
as Self
Airport '77
as Joe Patroni
Proof of the Man
as Ken Shuftan
The Eiger Sanction
as Ben Bowman
The Human Factor
as John Kinsdale
The Blue Knight
as Bumper Morgan
Earthquake
as Sgt. Lew Slade
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot
as Red Leary
Airport 1975
as Joe Patroni
A Cry in the Wilderness
as Sam Hadley
Sonic Boom
as Ben Dover
Cahill: United States Marshal
as Abe Fraser
Lost Horizon
as Sam Cornelius
Deliver Us from Evil
as Walter 'Cowboy' McAdams
The Bull of the West
as 'Bear' Suchette
A Great American Tragedy
as Brad Wilkes
Fools' Parade
as Dallas 'Doc' Council
Sarge: The Badge or the Cross
as Sarge Swanson
The Priest Killer
as Father Samuel Cavanaugh
Airport
as Joe Patroni
Dirty Dingus Magee
as Herkimer 'Hoke' Birdsill
Zig Zag
as Paul R. Cameron
… tick… tick… tick…
as John Little
Gaily, Gaily
as Axel P. Johanson
The Boston Strangler
as Det. Phil DiNatale
Bandolero!
as Sheriff July Johnson
The Pink Jungle
as Sammy Ryderbeit
The Legend of Lylah Clare
as Matt Burke
Cool Hand Luke
as Dragline
The Dirty Dozen
as Major Max Armbruster
The Ballad of Josie
as Arch Ogden
Hurry Sundown
as Sheriff Coombs
The Flight of the Phoenix
as Bellamy
Shenandoah
as Col. Fairchild
The Sons of Katie Elder
as Curley
Mirage
as Willard
In Harm's Way
as Colonel Gregory
Strait-Jacket
as Leo Krause
See How They Run
as Rudy
Island of the Blue Dolphins
as Aleut Captain
McHale's Navy
as Henri Le Clerc
Charade
as Herman Scobie
Lonely are the Brave
as Deputy Sheriff Gutierrez
The Silent Witness
as Gus Jordan
The Little Shepherd Of Kingdom Come
as Nathan Dillon
