George Kennedy 1925 -2016
February 29, 2016 2:41 PM   Subscribe

Passed away at age 91. Sandy-haired, tall and burly George Harris Kennedy, Jr. was born in New York City, to Helen A. (Kieselbach), a ballet dancer, and George Harris Kennedy, an orchestra leader and musician. He has German, Irish, and English ancestry. A World War II veteran, 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

George Kennedy, a bear of a man who won an Oscar for his performance as the sadistic chain gang prisoner Dragline in Cool Hand Luke and delighted audiences as a dimwitted police captain in the zany Naked Gun comedies.

Kennedy died Sunday morning in Boise, Idaho.

Until his recognition in Cool Hand Luke (1967), Kennedy was usually cast as a tough guy. Following his Oscar win for best supporting actor, he went on to star in The Guns of the Magnificent Seven (1969) and received second billing in such films as The Good Guys and the Bad Guys (1969) with Robert Mitchum; Dirty Dingus Magee (1970) with Frank Sinatra; Fools’ Parade (1971) with James Stewart; and The Eiger Sanction (1975) with Clint Eastwood, a frequent co-star
posted by shockingbluamp (51 comments total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
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posted by drezdn at 2:43 PM on February 29, 2016


Awww. Loved this guy's characters.

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posted by Existential Dread at 2:44 PM on February 29, 2016 [3 favorites]


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posted by mondo dentro at 2:45 PM on February 29, 2016


George Kennedy starred in some great films, some pretty good films, some wonderfully bad films, and some just plain old films.
I always loved seeing him pop up in the kind of flicks that were the Saturday afternoon mainstays of channels like TBS and WGN back in the early days of cable. His was such an appealing presence that he could often act as ambassador for movies you had no interest in otherwise.
AND he had the keen self-awareness to know how and when to flip the switch from Drama to Hammy Drama to Lampooning Hammy Drama in Realtime on a dime. Easy to type, much much harder to actually do.
Like his infamous commercials for Breath Assure would attest, George Kennedy was "da bomb"
RIP
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posted by Senor Cardgage at 2:47 PM on February 29, 2016 [5 favorites]


Dragline (Kennedy): Nothin'. A handful of nothin'. You stupid mullet head. He beat you with nothin'. Just like today when he kept comin' back at me - with nothin'.

Luke: Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 2:49 PM on February 29, 2016 [6 favorites]


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posted by Thorzdad at 2:54 PM on February 29, 2016


Ed (Kennedy): Doctors say that Nordberg has a 50/50 chance of living, though there's only a 10 percent chance of that.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 2:55 PM on February 29, 2016 [5 favorites]


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posted by Iridic at 2:55 PM on February 29, 2016


On my honour, folks, he was in Death Ship.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 2:55 PM on February 29, 2016 [3 favorites]


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posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 2:55 PM on February 29, 2016


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posted by Foci for Analysis at 2:58 PM on February 29, 2016


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"Who do ya think you're talking to, some kid that fixes bicycles? I know every inch of the 707! Take the wings off this plane and you could use it as a TANK! This plane is built to withstand anything... except a bad pilot!"
posted by fairmettle at 2:59 PM on February 29, 2016 [6 favorites]


Don't forget he had a mystery novel, Murder on Location, and its followup, Murder on High.

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posted by Smart Dalek at 3:00 PM on February 29, 2016 [1 favorite]


ZORON: You're acting like little weasels. How'd you ever make the fleet? I can communicate with the fleet's central computer if I can figure out the code. We've got to have that information!

CADET: I believe I know the code, sir.

ZORON: You know nothing!
posted by Iridic at 3:05 PM on February 29, 2016 [2 favorites]


Aah, Sons of Katie Elder. They don't make 'em like that -- or him -- anymore.

Godspeed, George.
posted by Capt. Renault at 3:09 PM on February 29, 2016 [4 favorites]


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posted by Splunge at 3:10 PM on February 29, 2016


I will never feel safe flying on an airplane ever again.

(we need a patron saint of airtravel aka St. Patroni STAT)

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posted by mazola at 3:12 PM on February 29, 2016


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I thought he was great as 'Red' in Thunderolt and Lightfoot
posted by BozoBurgerBonanza at 3:43 PM on February 29, 2016 [3 favorites]


So great, so great. He even saved Bolero from being a complete disaster.

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posted by ogooglebar at 3:44 PM on February 29, 2016 [1 favorite]


Big guy, big grin. Best cigar chewer ever.

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posted by kinnakeet at 3:53 PM on February 29, 2016 [2 favorites]


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Will always be Ben in The Eiger Sanction, "a vapid Clint Eastwood film" according the guy who wrote the novel, but 13-year-old valkane loved that movie and the scene were Kennedy talks Eastwood off the mountainside will always have a special place.
posted by valkane at 3:57 PM on February 29, 2016 [2 favorites]


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Time to watch Charade again for the umpteenth time.
posted by usonian at 4:34 PM on February 29, 2016 [9 favorites]


The first time I saw him was in Charade. I have it on blu-ray, so I might just watch that when I get home.

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posted by mephron at 4:57 PM on February 29, 2016


Oh Charade, I haven't watched that in ages.

Also, I had a moment when all I saw was obit and the name Kennedy and I thought Justice Kennedy had passed away and all the politics flashed in front of my eyes.
posted by dawg-proud at 5:02 PM on February 29, 2016


I only knew him from The Naked Gun, and then one day in seventh grade a buddy and I were channel surfing and came to the car wash scene from Cool Hand Luke. Kind of a revelation. We watched the rest of the movie and were never the same.
posted by infinitewindow at 5:09 PM on February 29, 2016 [3 favorites]


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posted by ZeusHumms at 5:20 PM on February 29, 2016


He's barely in it, but whenever I think of George Kennedy I think of two things: CHL and Hulk Running.
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 5:42 PM on February 29, 2016


Seymour Zamboni: "I liked him in "Earthquake" from 1975."

Killdozer - Man vs Nature
posted by namewithoutwords at 5:49 PM on February 29, 2016 [3 favorites]


ZORON: You're acting like little weasels.

I used to quote: "You're acting like a bunch of gerbils!" Maybe it's in a different scene. Maybe I remembered it wrong.
posted by ovvl at 5:55 PM on February 29, 2016


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posted by Cookiebastard at 5:55 PM on February 29, 2016


Seems like he was in everything on tv or the big screen in the 1970's. The good guy, the bad guy, the tough guy, the soft guy. He played them all. All George Kennedy all the time.
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 5:57 PM on February 29, 2016 [4 favorites]


We watched the rest of the movie and were never the same.

No one who watched that movie was ever the same.
posted by blucevalo at 6:00 PM on February 29, 2016 [2 favorites]


Drag. He was one of the great character actors. RIP, GHK.
posted by jonmc at 6:13 PM on February 29, 2016


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posted by Joey Michaels at 6:20 PM on February 29, 2016


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I remember him best for The Dirty Dozen; as a movie reviewer in the 1970s I saw Kennedy doing good work in all sorts of movies.
posted by LeLiLo at 6:25 PM on February 29, 2016 [1 favorite]


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posted by condour75 at 6:37 PM on February 29, 2016


He started his show biz career at the age of two, gave it up when he turned 18 so he could join the Army and win World War II, then decided, Eh, fuck it, might as well stay in the Army, which he did for sixteen years until he got a back injury, so he decided, Well, might as well get back into show biz. This is a guy who just made up his mind to do shit and did it, because fuck you, that's why.

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posted by Etrigan at 6:46 PM on February 29, 2016 [12 favorites]


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posted by Melismata at 7:22 PM on February 29, 2016


Patroni had one of the strangest careers in airline history. Mechanic in Airport '75, Vice-President of the airline in Airport '77, and Concorde captain in Airport '79: The Concorde.
posted by hwyengr at 7:47 PM on February 29, 2016 [6 favorites]


Great actor , great grin. Best cigar chewer ever.

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beat to it by kinnakeet
posted by ridgerunner at 7:58 PM on February 29, 2016 [1 favorite]


Damn. Yeah, his heartbreak in Cool Hand Luke was so... heartbreaking.

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posted by queensissy at 8:01 PM on February 29, 2016


Patroni had one of the strangest careers in airline history. Mechanic in Airport '75, Vice-President of the airline in Airport '77, and Concorde captain in Airport '79: The Concorde.

That airline had very liberal job sharing policies.
posted by mazola at 8:52 PM on February 29, 2016 [6 favorites]


That airline had very liberal job sharing policies.

Come to think of it, he didn't even work for that airline in the first one. He wore a TWA hat the whole film.
posted by hwyengr at 8:58 PM on February 29, 2016 [1 favorite]


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posted by bongo_x at 10:42 PM on February 29, 2016


My boy says he can eat fifty eggs, he can eat fifty eggs.
posted by rocketman at 3:59 AM on March 1, 2016


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posted by Gelatin at 4:10 AM on March 1, 2016


He made good movies even better, and bad movies bearable. Godspeed, and thanks.

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posted by easily confused at 4:12 AM on March 1, 2016 [2 favorites]


He went to my high school, Chaminade, in Mineola on Long Island. I remember finding his picture on the wall from his senior graduation class.

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posted by tommasz at 6:36 AM on March 1, 2016 [1 favorite]


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posted by mistersquid at 9:37 AM on March 1, 2016


A fine serious actor, but always Ed from Police Squad to me.

"Frank, they're not here for you. "Weird" Al Yankovic is on the plane. "
posted by Chrysostom at 9:55 AM on March 1, 2016 [2 favorites]


Frank Drebin: Cheer up, Ed. This is not goodbye. It's just I won't ever see you again.

Great actor, loved his comedic turns as much as the dramatic ones.
posted by NordyneDefenceDynamics at 4:52 AM on March 3, 2016


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