George Kennedy - Definition and Overview

George Kennedy (born February 18, 1925 in New York City) is an American actor who has appeared in over 200 film and television productions. He is widely familiar as Joe Patroni in the Airport series of disaster movies from the 1970s, or more recently as Captain Ed Hocken from the Naked Gun trilogy.

Biography

Kennedy was born into a show business family and made his stage debut at the age of two; he then became a radio performer. He put aside show business during World War II and spent 16 years in the United States Army, seeing combat and working in the Armed Forces radio. After retiring from the military (reportedly because of a back injury), Kennedy found his way back to the entertainment industry. He became a technical advisor for the television series Sergeant Bilko. Kennedy began his film career in 1961 in The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come. He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in Cool Hand Luke (1967).

On television, Kennedy played Carter McKay in the CBS prime time serial Dallas (1978 - 1991). He starred in the series from 1988 - 1991.

Selected filmography

• The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come (1961)
• McHale's Navy (1964)
• Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)
• The Sons of Katie Elder (1965)
• The Dirty Dozen (1967)
• Cool Hand Luke (1967)
• Bandolero! (1968)
• Guns of the Magnificent Seven (1969)
• Airport (1970)
• Lost Horizon (1973)
• Cahill U.S. Marshal (1973)
• Airport 1975 (1974)
• Earthquake (1974)
• Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974)
• Airport '77 (1977)
• (1979)
• The Delta Force (1986)
• Creepshow 2 (1987)
• The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
• The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear (1991)
• Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994)
• Bayou Ghost (1997)
• Truce (2004)

External links

• George Kennedy (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001421/) at the Internet Movie Database