Douglas Kennedy (actor)

Douglas Kennedy
Photo courtesy of NNDB.com
Born	Douglas Richards Kennedy September 14, 1915 New York City, New York
Died	August 10, 1973(1973-08-10) (aged 57) Honolulu, Hawaii
Other names	Doug Kennedy Douglas R. Kennedy Keith Douglas
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1935 - 1973

Douglas Richards Kennedy (September 14, 1915 - August 10, 1973) was an American supporting actor who appeared in over 190 films between 1935 and 1973. He was born in New York City.

Career

Kennedy was a character player and occasional leading man of Hollywood. He attended Deerfield Academy afterwards graduating from Amherst College. Making his debut in 1935, he played a significant number of supporting roles, and was able to secure contract-player status, first at Paramount Pictures and later at Warner Bros.

His acting career was interrupted by World War II service as a major in the Signal Corps with the OSS and the Army Intelligence. After that, he returned to films and played character roles, often western villains or territorial marshals, as well as isolated leads in low-budget pictures.^[1]

Kennedy is best remembered for his starring role in the syndicated series Steve Donovan, Western Marshal, with Eddy Waller, and as one of the policemen who vanishes in the science fiction classic Invaders from Mars.

In the episode "Shadow of a Gunfighter" of the NBC western series The Restless Gun, which aired on January 12, 1959, Kennedy plays a former gunfighter, Cal Winfield, who is informed that Vint Bonner, John Payne's lead role, is responsible for the death of Winfield's son. Cal Winfield then comes out of retirement to extract vengeance. Robert Fuller appears in the episode as Jim Winfield.^[2]

Later, Kennedy portrayed the sheriff, Fred Madden, of ABC's The Big Valley, and made his last appearance on CBS's Hawaii Five-O.

Kennedy died of cancer at the age of fifty-seven in Honolulu, Hawaii, where he had been for the shooting of the Hawaii Five-O episode. He is buried at National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.

Selected appearances

Films

• 'G' Men (1935)
• The Way of All Flesh (1940)
• North West Mounted Police (1940)
• The Bride Came C.O.D. (1941)
• Nora Prentiss (1947)
• The Unfaithful (1947)
• Possessed (1947)
• Dark Passage (1947)
• That Hagen Girl (1947)
• Embraceable You (1948)
• Adventures of Don Juan (1948)
• East Side, West Side (1949)
• Convicted (1950)
• China Corsair (1951)
• Indian Uprising (1952)
• Invaders from Mars (1953)
• War Paint (1953)
• The High and the Mighty (1954)
• Wyoming Renegades (1954)
• Sitting Bull (1954)
• The Last Wagon (1956)
• The Land Unknown (1957)
• The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold (1958)
• The Alligator People (1959)
• The Amazing Transparent Man (1960)
• The Fastest Guitar Alive (1967)

TV shows

• Fireside Theatre (1951–1953)
• Cavalcade of America (1953)
• Schlitz Playhouse of Stars (1953–1954)
• Hopalong Cassidy (1954)
• Letter to Loretta (1954)
• Stories of the Century (1954) in the role of Bill Longley
• Climax! (1954)
• The Lone Ranger (1950–1955)
• Science Fiction Theatre (1955)
• Annie Oakley (1955)
• Matinee Theatre (1955)
• Dragnet (1955–1956)
• Steve Donovan, Western Marshal (1955–1956)
• Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1956–1959)
• Tales of Wells Fargo (1957)
• Cheyenne (1957)
• Perry Mason (1957–1965)
• Studio One (1958)
• Tombstone Territory (1958)
• The Rough Riders (1958)
• Bronco (1958)
• Wanted: Dead or Alive (1958)
• Cimarron City (1958)
• Northwest Passage (1958)
• Jefferson Drum (1958)
• Wagon Train (1958–1959)
• Maverick (1958–1959)
• Bat Masterson (1959)
• Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond (1959)
• General Electric Theater (1959)
• The Restless Gun (1959)
• The Lineup (1959)
• Colt .45 (1959)
• Zorro (1959)
• Wyatt Earp (1959)
• Laramie (1960)
• The Texan (1959–1960)
• Rawhide (1959–1965)
• Bonanza (1959, 1965–1968)
• Have Gun - Will Travel (1960)
• Lock Up (1960)
• Riverboat (1960)
• The Rifleman (1960)
• Pony Express (1960)
• Sugarfoot (1960)
• Gunsmoke (1960–1966)
• Ripcord (1961)
• The Outer Limits (1965)
• The Legend of Jesse James (1965)
• The Big Valley (1965–1969)
• Lassie (1966)
• The Virginian (1966–1967)
• Dragnet (1967)
• Cade's County (1971)
• O'Hara, U.S. Treasury (1972)
• Hawaii Five-O (1973)

Career notes

1. ^ Katz, Ephraim (1990). The Film Encyclopedia (2nd Edition ed.). New York: Perennial Library, Harper & Row Publishers. pp. 1278. ISBN 0-06-092027-0. 
2. ^ "Shadow of a Gunfighter", The Restless Gun, January 12, 1959, tv.com

External links

• Douglas Kennedy at:

All Movie Guide

Internet Movie Database

Find-a-Grave

Persondata
Name	Kennedy, Douglas
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	September 14, 1915
Place of birth	New York City, New York
Date of death	August 10, 1973
Place of death	Honolulu, Hawaii