George Kennedy

Biography: George Kennedy

Born into a show business family, George Kennedy made his stage debut at the age of two in a touring company of Bringing up Father. By the time he was seven, he was spinning records on a New York radio station. Kennedy' showbusiness inclinations were put aside when he developed a taste for the rigors of military life during World War II, and he wound up spending 16 years in the army. His military career ended and his acting career began when a back injury in the late 1950s inspired him to seek out another line of work. Appropriately enough, given his background, Kennedy first made his name with a role as a military advisor on the Sergeant Bilko TV series. In films from 1961, the burly, 6'4" actor usually played heavies, both figuratively and literally; quite often, as in Charade (1963) and Straitjacket (1964), his unsavory screen characters were bumped off sometime during the fourth reel. One of his friendlier roles was as a compassionate Union officer in Shenandoah (1965), an assignment he was to treasure because it gave him a chance to work with the one of his idols, Jimmy Stewart. Kennedy moved up to the big leagues with his Academy Award win for his portrayal of Dragline in Cool Hand Luke (1967). An above-the-title star from then on, Kennedy has been associated with many a box-office hit, notably all four Airport films. Unlike many major actors, he has displayed a willingness to spoof his established screen image, as demonstrated by his portrayal of Ed Hocken in the popular Naked Gun series. On TV, Kennedy has starred in the weekly series Sarge (1971) and The Blue Knight (1978), and was seen as President Warren G. Harding in the 1979 miniseries Backstairs at the White House. During the mid '90s, he became known as a persuasive commercial spokesman in a series of breath-freshener advertisements. In 1997, he provided the voice for L.B. Mammoth in the animated musical Cats Don't Dance, and the following year again displayed his vocal talents as one of the titular toys-gone-bad in Small Soldiers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide less

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Sands of Oblivion (2007)
Cast: George Kennedy Adam Baldwin Dan Castellaneta Richard Kind David Flores
Tags: History Unexplained Phenomena Physical Sciences
Length: 94min
In 1923, after acclaimed director Cecil B. de Mille completed the first version of his Biblical epic The Ten Commandments, an odd event occurred that generated a wealth of speculation and mystery: de Mille - having shot on multi-million dollar sets to...
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Dallas: War of the Ewings (1998)
Cast: George Kennedy Larry Hagman Linda Gray Michelle Johnson Steve Kanaly
Tags: Drama
Length: min
In this sudsy made-for-TV installment of the Ewing saga, wily J.R. (Larry Hagman) finds himself discontent merely managing an oil conglomerate and decides to try to regain control of his father's company from Bobby (Patrick Duffy) and Sue Ellen (Linda...
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The Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994)
Cast: George Kennedy Elliott Gould Kathleen Freeman James Earl Jones Leslie Nielsen
Tags: Parody/Spoof Crime Comedy Absurd Comedy Comedy Police Comedy
Length: 90min
The further misadventures of bumbling Los Angeles police Lieutenant Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) are chronicled in this third installment in the popular Naked Gun comedy series. This by-the-numbers entry begins with Drebin as a happily retired...
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The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear (1991)
Cast: George Kennedy David Zucker Robert Goulet Leslie Nielsen O.J. Simpson
Tags: Slapstick Parody/Spoof Absurd Comedy Comedy
Length: 85min
Leslie Nielsen returns as the intrepid (and accident-prone) Lt. Frank Drebin in Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear, "un film de David Zucker." This second feature film from the "Police Squad!" series finds Drebin as a guest at a White House dinner,...
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Final Shot: The Hank Gathers Story (1992)
Cast: George Kennedy Nell Carter Charles Braverman Duane Davis Donny B. Lord
Tags: Docudrama Biopic Drama
Length: 92min
Donny B. Lord and Victor Love share the title role in Final Shot: The Hank Gathers Story. The film traces the true story of young Gathers, played by Lord as a child and Love as an adult. Rising from his inner-city origins to become a basketball star...
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Hangfire (1991)
Cast: George Kennedy Brad Davis Kim Delaney Yaphet Kotto Jan-Michael Vincent
Tags: Escape Film Action Adventure
Length: 91min
This Peter Maris action begins at New Mexico State Penitentiary, where a spew of toxic gas from the crash of a tanker truck leads to the evacuation of the prison by the warden (George Kennedy). In the ensuing confusion, anti-social cons Kuttner (Lee...
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Ministry of Vengeance (1989)
Cast: Ned Beatty George Kennedy Yaphet Kotto James Tolkan John Schneider
Tags: Melodrama Action Drama
Length: 90min
A Vietnam War veteran (John Schneider) renounces the military for a priest's habit, but after his wife and daughter are killed by terrorists in Rome (and the government does nothing), the hero returns to violent means. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
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The Naked Gun (1988)
Cast: David Zucker George Kennedy John Houseman O.J. Simpson Leslie Nielsen
Tags: Slapstick Parody/Spoof Absurd Comedy Comedy
Length: 85min
We know we're in a 1988 film when we're invited to laugh at O.J. Simpson in an opening slapstick sequence. We can also pinpoint the year of production when hard-nosed cop Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen), during a scuffle with the world's leading...
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Good Cops, Bad Cops (1990)
Cast: Ed Asner George Kennedy Paul Wendkos Ray Sharkey James Keach
Tags: Docudrama Drama Crime Police Drama
Length: 96min
One of the largest crimes in history was the 1980 robbery of the Boston Depositors Trust by a group of policemen as related in this true story. ~ All Movie Guide
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The Terror Within (1988)
Cast: George Kennedy Roger Corman Andrew Stevens Thierry Notz Starr Andreeff
Tags: Creature Film Science Fiction Horror Sci-Fi Horror
Length: 90min
This sci-fi horror film is a knock-off of the Alien films. Set in the Mojave desert in the 21st century, it depicts a desolate world that has been ravaged by a human engineered plague virus where the few people live underground and the surface is...
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George Kennedy

Biography: George Kennedy

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