George Kennedy, who starred in Cool Hand Luke and The Naked Gun movies, has died at the age of 91.
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Kennedy appeared frequently in 1970 disaster movies including as mechanic Joe Patroni in Airport, Airport 1975, Airport 1977 and in The Concorde…Airport ’79.
Kennedy toiled in the TV trenches for much of the 1960s, especially guesting on Westerns – and occasionally appearing in supporting roles in high-profile films such as “In Harm’s Way”, “The Sons of Katie Elder”, “The Flight of the Phoenix” and “The Dirty Dozen”.
For the past month, George had been in hospice care.
The burly, 6-foot-4 actor turned his tough-guy persona to comedy in the 1980s, starring in the Naked Gun franchise alongside Leslie Nielsen. Spartacusand many more. Kennedy also famously played villainous Texan oil baron “Carter Mckay” in the last three seasons of classic US Drama Dallas.
Cory explained that after the acclaimed actor’s wife, Joan, died about a year ago, his grandfather’s health had rapidly begun to decline.
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His final film role was in the 2014 crime drama remake The Gambler alongside Mark Wahlberg. So it’s perhaps not surprising that the young Kennedy got into performing early, making his stage debut at the age of two and graduating from there to working in radio shows. He died in Idaho on Sunday morning, and is survived by his daughter and two grandchildren.
