George Kennedy

Also known as George Harris Kennedy, Jr., George Harris Kennedy

American actor (1925–2016)

OverviewAI-generated

George Kennedy (1925–2016) was an American film, stage, and television actor. Born in New York City, he began his professional work in 1955 and continued until 2014. He served in World War II and was educated at Tarleton State University. Kennedy received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He was also nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor.

Kennedy had four children and worked within the Western genre. He died in Middleton from a myocardial infarction. While some records associate the name George Kennedy with a British classical composer, the primary subject here is the American actor.

Synthesized by Vinony from 41 facts across 8 sources: Wikidata, Crossref, MusicBrainz, Last.fm, TMDb, Open Library, Vinony collections, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Film & TV

New York City, New York, USA

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…

Known for

Airports2025
The Gambler — Ed2014
Another Happy Day — Joe Baker2011
2Everything2Terrible2: Tokyo Drift — (archive footage)2010
Six Days in Paradise — Monty Crenshaw2010
The Man Who Came Back — Judge Duke2008
A Natural Born World-Shaker: The Making of 'Cool Hand Luke' — Self2008
The Boneyard Collection — Professor Zebediah Jones (segment "The Devil's Due at Midnight")2008
Sands of Oblivion — John Tevis2007
Armed and Deadly: The Making of 'The Dirty Dozen' — Self2006

via TMDB

Wikidata facts

Instance of: human
Given name: George
Family name: Kennedy
Gender: male
Citizenship: United States
Place of birth: New York City
Place of death: Middleton
Occupation: military officer
Languages spoken: English language
Native language: English language
Award: star on Hollywood Walk of Fame
Field of work: acting
Genre: Western
Conflict: World War II
Image: George Kennedy 1975.JPG
Number of children: 4

Show 12 more facts

Commons category: George Kennedy
date of birth: 1925-02-18
Commons gallery: George Kennedy
nominated for: Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor - Razzie Award
date of death: 2016-02-29
start of work period: 1955-00-00
cause of death: myocardial infarction
manner of death: natural causes
end of work period: 2014-00-00
writing language: English language
birth name: George Harris Kennedy Jr.
place of burial: Forest Hills Cemetery

Sources (9)

via Wikidata · CC0

~9 min read

Encyclopedic overview

George Harris Kennedy Jr. (February 18, 1925 – February 28, 2016) was an American actor who appeared in more than 100 film and television productions. He played "Dragline" in Cool Hand Luke (1967), winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the role and being nominated for the corresponding Golden Globe. He received a second Golden Globe nomination for portraying Joe Patroni in Airport (1970).

Among other films in which he had a significant role are Lonely Are the Brave; Charade; Strait-Jacket, McHale's Navy; Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte; Mirage; Shenandoah; The Sons of Katie Elder; The Flight of the Phoenix; In Harm's Way; The Dirty Dozen; The Boston Strangler; Guns of the Magnificent Seven; tick… tick… tick…; Cahill U.S. Marshal; Thunderbolt and Lightfoot; The Good Guys and the Bad Guys; Earthquake; The Eiger Sanction and The Delta Force.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “George Kennedy” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.