George Kennedy – George Kennedy Biography

The actor George Harris Kennedy, Jr. He was born on February 18, 1925, in New York City, to a family of German, Irish and English descent and artist parents; in fact, his mother, Helen A. Kieselbach, was a ballet dancer, and his father, George Harris Kennedy, a conductor and musician.

Veteran of World War II, Kennedy made his stage debut at the age of two; in time he became a radio actor. He put the show aside during World War II and served in the United States Army for sixteen years, having been in combat and working on the radio for the Armed Forces. During that time he was involved with the opening of the first Army Information Office, charged with providing technical assistance for movies and television shows.

Kennedy accumulates an impressive figure of more than 200 film and television appearances, and is highly respected within the Hollywood community.

It began in television westerns in the 1950s and early 1960s as Revolver on command (1957), Rawhide (1959), Maverick (1957), Colt 45 (1957), among others; before landing minor roles in movies like Lonely are the brave (1962), The Sons of Katie Elder (1965) and The Flight of the Phoenix (1965).

The 1960s was a very busy period for Kennedy, decade in which he worked on films such as The desired night (1967), “Twelve of the gallows” (1967) and achieving an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The legend of the indomitable (1967).

The “catastrophe movie” boom of the 1970s was also kind to Kennedy, and his talent could be seen in “Airport” (1970) and its three subsequent sequels; He was also the gray-haired policeman from Terremoto (1974) And and the vicious bank robber Red Leary of Crime specialists (1974).
The 1980s saw Kennedy working in very dissimilar roles; However, along with Leslie Nielsen they surprised everyone with their talent for comedy in the hit The naked gun (1988), and these two screen veterans continued the success with the sequels, The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Scent of Fear (1991), and The Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994).

Kennedy has been active in Hollywood and has lent his distinctive voice in animated films such as Cats Don’t Dance (1997) or Little Warriors (1998). A stalwart Hollywod for almost 50 years, George Kennedy he is one of the most enjoyable actors to watch on screen.

In his personal life, Kennedy had several marriages. The first of them was with Dorothy Gillooly, whom he divorced to marry Norma Wurma, the mother of his two children. Both were divorced in 1971 but two years later they remarried. However, this renewed commitment ended again in divorce in August 1978, a few days before Kennedy he married his wife to the present, Joan McCarthy, with whom he lives in their homes in the town of Águila, in Ada County, southwest Idaho.

George Kennedy She has four adopted children, one of them is her granddaughter Taylor, whom she adopted after her mother’s incarceration.

His star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is located at 6352 Hollywood Blvd.