George kennedy actor biography eric close

LOS ANGELES (AP) — George Kennedy, the hulking, tough-guy character actor who won an Academy Award for his portrayal of a savage chain-gang convict in the 1960s classic “Cool Hand Luke,” has died.

His grandson Cory Schenkel says Kennedy died on Sunday morning of old age in Boise, Idaho. He was 91.

He had undergone emergency triple bypass surgery in 2002. That same year, he and his late wife moved to Idaho to be closer to their daughter and her family, though he still was involved in occasional film projects.

His biggest acting achievement came in “Cool Hand Luke,” a 1967 film about a rebellious war hero played by Paul Newman who is bent on bucking the system as a prisoner on a Southern chain gang. Its theme of rebelling against authority and the establishment helped make it one of the most important films of the tumultuous 1960s.

Kennedy played the role of Dragline, the chain-gang boss who goes from Luke’s No. 1 nemesis to his biggest disciple as Newman’s character takes on folk hero status among fellow inmates. The movie garnered four Academy Award nominations, and Kennedy was named best supporting actor.

Newman and Kennedy provided a spectacular one-two punch — Luke as the reticent anti-hero, Dragline as an illiterate brute. They shared several memorable scenes, including one in which Kennedy’s character wins a bet by getting Luke to eat 50 eggs in an hour.

After the critical and commercial success of “Cool Hand Luke,” Kennedy carved out a niche as one of Hollywood’s most recognizable supporting actors. He had parts in several action flicks in the 1970s, played Leslie Nielsen’s sidekick in the “Naked Gun” spoofs and was J.R. Ewing’s business rival in the final seasons of “Dallas.”

One of his strongest supporting roles was in the hit 1970 film “Airport,” which spurred the run of 1970s disaster pictures. Kennedy played Joe Patroni,

My first, indelible movie image of a terrible midwestern blizzard has George Kennedy’s face on it, which made it seem like nothing, really.

On Sunday the Oscar winning Kennedy died, according to his grandson’s Facebook post. There should be a special place in the afterlife for character actors like Kennedy, a celestial dressing room where there are no “No Smoking” signs, and all the reliable, familiar utility men and women who’ve passed on can enjoy each other’s stories about everybody they worked with in the industry.

Kennedy won his supporting actor Oscar for “Cool Hand Luke” (1967). I didn’t come to that Paul Newman vehicle until much later. My first encounter with Kennedy, at age 9, was the G-rated but Very Grown Up disaster movie/soap opera “Airport” (1970), set in Chicago, at fictional Lincoln International Airport. The movie was a huge hit (10 Oscar nominations, which seems a mite excessive today), and the airborne bomb explosion scared the hell out of me. For a repeat “Love Bug” customer, “Airport” meant something new, a diversion not really aimed at kids — a stone-faced but eventful pile-up of unexpected pregnancies and pathetic homegrown terrorists and mugging stowaways.

Kennedy played TWA mechanic Joe Patroni, wielding his cigar like…well, like a really big cigar. In Kennedy’s big moment, he pushes a snowbound 707 out of a snowdrift, single-handedly. I remember thinking: Handy guy in bad weather! And he used the word “mother” in a way I hadn’t heard in a movie before!

As an actor, whether in one of the “Airport” semi-sequels (his character stayed the same; everyone else changed) or in the “Naked Gun” comedies, Kennedy brought heaps of zest to every assignment. His was a face you liked seeing again. Often it had been a while, if you missed his last couple of pictures. There were always a couple more. K

Who says you can’t beat a Ewing?

As the original “Dallas” neared its end, two Westar board members invited J.R. to become the company’s new chairman. J.R. found the offer too good to refuse, so he sold his share of Ewing Oil to Cliff Barnes and accepted the offer to join Westar — only to have the rug pulled out from under him by Carter McKay. In “The Decline and Fall of the Ewing Empire,” J.R. discovered the Westar job was a ruse; Carter’s minions had dangled the offer in front of J.R. long enough for him to sell Ewing Oil, and then Carter snatched Westar away, leaving J.R. with nothing.

History repeated itself, sort of, as TNT’s “Dallas” sequel series drew to a close. Carter’s grandson Hunter encouraged J.R.’s son John Ross to take Ewing Global public, making shares of the company available to outside investors. In “Victims of Love,” Hunter, with help from partner-in-crime Nicolas Trevino, purchased all of Ewing Global’s shares during the company’s initial public offering — seizing control of John Ross’s company in a single swoop. Once again, a McKay had beaten a Ewing.

The parallels between these storylines aren’t perfect. Carter merely tricked J.R. into giving up Ewing Oil, while Hunter took over Ewing Global. Nevertheless, there are similarities between the scenes where J.R. and John Ross each realize the tables have been turned against them. Both sequences feature surprise reunions — J.R. and Dusty Farlow (!) in “The Decline and Fall of the Ewing Empire,” Christopher and Hunter in “Victims of Love” — and J.R. and John Ross use similar language. J.R. to Carter: “You son of a bitch. You set me up.” John Ross to Hunter: “You and Nicolas were setting me up.” There are also important differences: cool-as-a-cucumber J.R. keeps a stiff upper lip after Carter’s victory, while hot-headed John Ross attacks Hunter.

It took a while, but J.R. eventually clawed his way back to power. Will John Ross do the same? More importantly, how long will we have to wait to see

Canadian politician

This article is about the politician. For the actor, see Gerard Kennedy (actor).

Gerard Michael Kennedy (born July 24, 1960) is a Canadian politician in Ontario, Canada. He served as Ontario's minister of Education from 2003 to 2006, when he resigned to make an unsuccessful bid for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada. Kennedy previously ran for the leadership of the Ontario Liberal Party, losing to future premierDalton McGuinty on the final ballot. He also lost the 2013 Ontario Liberal leadership race, placing third.

While attending the University of Alberta in Edmonton, he became involved in the local food bank, eventually becoming its first executive director in 1983. In 1986, he moved to Toronto to run the Daily Bread Food Bank and did so until he entered politics, in 1996.

He was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as an Ontario Liberal Party Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) in a 1996 by-election to replace former premierBob Rae in the York South constituency. In the 1999 and 2003 general elections, he was elected to represent the new Parkdale—High Park constituency. He became the province's Minister of Education in 2003, serving in McGuinty's first government.

In 2006, he resigned his cabinet post and then his legislative