George Harris Kennedy, Jr. (born February 18, 1925) is an Academy Award-winning American actor who has appeared in over 200 film and television productions. He is perhaps most familiar as Dragline in Cool Hand Luke and Joe Patroni in the Airport series of disaster movies from the 1970s.
Kennedy was born in New York into a show business family. His father, George Harris Kennedy, a musician and orchestra leader, died when Kennedy was four years old. He was raised by his mother, Helen A. (née Kieselbach), a ballet dancer. He made his stage debut at the age of two, later becoming a radio performer. Kennedy put aside show business during World War II and spent sixteen years in the United States Army, seeing combat and working in the Armed Forces radio. He was involved with the opening of the first Army Information Office, which provided provided technical assistance to films and TV shows. After retiring from the military (reportedly because of a back injury), Kennedy found his way back to the entertainment industry.
The handprints of George Kennedy in front of The Great Movie Ride at Walt Disney World's Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park.
Kennedy became a technical advisor for the television series Sergeant Bilko, where his acting career began with a few one-line parts. Kennedy began his film career in 1961 in The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come. He then appeared in several successful films, including 1963's'Charade opposite Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Walter Matthau, and James Coburn, 1964's Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte, opposite Bette Davis, and 1965's In Harm's Way, opposite John Wayne. He also made numerous television appearances, on The Andy Griffith Show, Perry Mason, Bonanza, McHale's Navy, and Gunsmoke. He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Cool Hand Luke (1967). He followed with films such as The Dirty Dozen,Bandolero! and The Boston Strangler. In 1970 he appeared in the Academy-Award-winning film Airport, in which he played one of the film's lead characters, Joe Patroni. He reprised this role four years later in Airport 1975 and again in two further sequels. In 1984, he starred opposite Bo Derek in the Hollywood disaster Bolero. Kennedy also appeared in the television series The Love Boat in 1984, playing the character Erik Larsen. He then appeared in several less successful films including Savage Dawn, The Delta Force, and Creepshow 2 before appearing in the comedy hit The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! in 1988, playing Captain Ed Hocken. The film had two sequels in which Kennedy co-starred.
On television, Kennedy played Carter McKay in the CBS prime time serial Dallas (1978-1991), appearing from 1988-1991. In the late 1990s, he promoted Breathasure tablets in television commercials with the quote "I never go anywhere without my Breathasure." Around this time he reprised his role as Cater McKay in the television films Dallas: JR Returns and Dallas: War of the Ewings. In 1998, he voiced Brick Bazooka for the film Small Soldiers. He then made several independent films before making a 2003 comeback to television in the soap opera The Young and the Restless, playing the character Albert Miller. In 2005, he made a cameo appearance in the small film Don't Come Knocking, where he played the director of an ill-fated Western.
He also was a celebrity spokesperson for the now defunct and discredited breath freshener brand "Breath Asure"
Kennedy received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to motion pictures, located at 6352 Hollywood Blvd.
Kennedy resides in Eagle, Idaho. He is married to Joan McCarthy and has a daughter, Shaunna, who has struggled with substance abuse. The couple adopted their granddaughter, Taylor, after her mother's incarceration.
