Arthur Kennedy

For other people named Arthur Kennedy, see Arthur Kennedy (disambiguation).

Arthur Kennedy
File:ArthurKennedy.JPG Kennedy in Champion (1949)
Born	John Arthur Kennedy (1914-02-17)February 17, 1914 Worcester, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	January 5, 1990(1990-01-05) (aged 75) Branford, Connecticut, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1940–90
Spouse	Mary Cheffrey (1938-75; her death)

Arthur Kennedy (February 17, 1914 – January 5, 1990) was an American stage and film actor known for his versatility in supporting film roles and his ability to create "an exceptional honesty and naturalness on stage", especially in the original casts of Arthur Miller plays on Broadway.

Early life and education

Kennedy was born John Arthur Kennedy on 17 February 1914 in Worcester, Massachusetts, the son of Helen (née Thompson) and J.T. Kennedy, a dentist. He attended South High School, Worcester and Worcester Academy. At Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh he studied drama, graduating with a B.A. in 1934.

Career

Kennedy moved to New York and, billed as John Kennedy, joined the Group Theatre. He then toured with a classical repertory company. In September 1937, he made his Broadway debut as Bushy in Maurice Evans' Richard II at the St. James Theatre. In 1939 he played Sir Richard Vernon in Evans' Henry IV, Part 1.

Kennedy got his break when he was discovered by James Cagney. His first film role was of Cagney's younger brother in City for Conquest in 1940. He was equally adept as hero or villain, and was noted for his mastery of complex, multi-faceted roles. He appeared in many Western films and police dramas.

During World War II, Kennedy served from 1943 to 1945 in the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) making aviation training films, both as a narrator and an actor. Many of those films today serve as an historical record of not only how aviators were trained but also how the equipment was operated.

He appeared in many notable films from the early 1940s through to the mid-1960s, including High Sierra, Champion, They Died with Their Boots On, The Glass Menagerie, Lawrence of Arabia, Peyton Place, Some Came Running, Elmer Gantry, and Fantastic Voyage.

Of Kennedy's film work, he is perhaps best-remembered for his collaborations with director Anthony Mann and co-star James Stewart on Bend of the River (1952) and The Man from Laramie (1955). In both films he played sympathetic villains.

He also enjoyed a distinguished stage career over the same period, receiving a Tony Award for the role of Biff Loman in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (1949). Kennedy also inaugurated three other major characters in Miller plays: Chris Keller in All My Sons (1947), John Proctor in The Crucible (1953) and Walter Franz in The Price (1968). In 1961 he played the title role in Becket, opposite Laurence Olivier as Henry II.

On February 5, 1959, Kennedy appeared on the episode "Make It Look Good" of CBS's Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre. Kennedy plays Sam Carter, a former Confederate hired as a bank teller in an otherwise all-Union community by the banker Clem Doud, portrayed by Parley Baer. It is revealed that Carter, widely disliked in the town, had for a time been a prisoner of war at Elmira, New York. Carter becomes the inside partner to two brothers, played by Ed Nelson and Richard Rust, who rob the bank, but he changes his mind and does not take part in the splitting of the $30,000 loot. Carter must confront Russ Bowen, one of the brothers who had vowed to harm Carter's wife, Jenny, portrayed by Jacqueline Scott. Robert F. Simon plays Sheriff John Hanley.

In 1974, Kennedy was a regular in the cast of the short-lived ABC police drama Nakia, portraying Sheriff Sam Jericho.

Waning interest, ill-health, then comeback

With the death of his wife in 1975, failing eyesight, alcoholism, and thyroid cancer, Kennedy was reported as having lost interest in film-making. After Covert Action (1978), his next film was Signs of Life (1989).

Awards and honors

In 1949, Kennedy won a Tony Award for best supporting actor as Biff in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman at the Morosco Theatre.

The New York Film Critics named him best actor for Bright Victory (1951).

His performance in Trial won him a Golden Globe Award for best supporting actor.

His portrayal of the newspaper reporter in Elmer Gantry (1960) gained him a Film Daily Award and a Limelight Award.

Oscar nominations

Kennedy, Claude Rains, and Robert Duvall share the record of four losing nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, although Duvall won for Lead Actor in 1983. He also received a nomination for Best Actor, in Bright Victory (1951).

Year	Award	Film	Winner
1949	Best Supporting Actor	Champion	Dean Jagger – Twelve O'Clock High
1951	Best Actor	Bright Victory	Humphrey Bogart – The African Queen
1955	Best Supporting Actor	Trial	Jack Lemmon – Mister Roberts
1957	Best Supporting Actor	Peyton Place	Red Buttons – Sayonara
1958	Best Supporting Actor	Some Came Running	Burl Ives – The Big Country

Personal life

Kennedy married Mary Cheffey (1915–1975) in March 1938. They had two children: actress Laurie Kennedy and Terence.

Death

The last years of his life Kennedy suffered with thyroid cancer and eye disease. He spent much of his later life in Savannah, Georgia, keeping out of the public eye. He died in 1990 in Branford, Connecticut of a brain tumor. He was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, near his home at Lequille, Nova Scotia, Canada; his wife Mary is also buried there.

Partial filmography

• City for Conquest (1940) as Eddie Kenny
• High Sierra (1941) as 'Red'
• Knockout (1961) as Johnny Rocket
• Strange Alibi (1941) as Joe Geary
• Bad Men of Missouri (1941) as Jim Younger
• Highway West (1941) as George Foster
• They Died with Their Boots On (1941) as Ned Sharp
• Desperate Journey (1942) as Flying Officer Jed Forrest
• Air Force (1943) as Bombardier
• Resisting Enemy Interrogation (1944) as Sgt. Alfred Mason (uncredited)
• Devotion (1946) as Branwell Brontë
• Boomerang (1947) as John Waldron
• Cheyenne (1947) as Chalk
• The Walking Hills (1949) as Chalk
• Champion (1949) as Connie
• The Window (1949) as Ed Woodry
• Too Late for Tears (1949) as Alan Palmer
• Chicago Deadline (1949) as Tommy Ditman
• The Glass Menagerie (1950) as Tom Wingfield
• Bright Victory (1951) as Larry Nevins
• Red Mountain (1951) as Lane Waldron
• Bend of the River (1952) as Emerson Cole
• Rancho Notorious (1952) as Vern Haskell
• The Girl in White (1952) as Dr. Ben Barringer
• The Lusty Men (1952) as Wes Merritt
• Impulse (1954) as Alan Curtis
• Crashout (1955) as Joe Quinn
• The Man From Laramie (1955) as Vic Hansbro
• The Desperate Hours (1955) as Deputy Sheriff Jesse Bard
• Trial (1955) as Barney
• The Naked Dawn (1955) as Santiago
• The Rawhide Years (1955) as Rick Harper
• Peyton Place (1957) as Lucas Cross
• Twilight for the Gods (1958) as First Mate Ramsay
• Some Came Running (1958) as Frank Hirsh
• Home Is the Hero (1959) as Willie O'Reilly
• A Summer Place (1959) as Bart Hunter
• Elmer Gantry (1960) as Jim Lefferts
• Claudelle Inglish (1961) as Clyde Inglish
• Murder, She Said (1961) as Dr. Quimper
• People Need People (1961) (Television film; premiere episode of Alcoa Premiere)
• Barabbas (1961) as Pontius Pilate
• Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man (1962) as Dr. Adams
• Lawrence of Arabia (1962) as Jackson Bentley
• Attack and Retreat (1964) as Ferro Maria Ferri
• Cheyenne Autumn (1964) as Doc Holliday
• Murieta (1965) as Capt. Love
• Joy in the Morning (1965) as Patrick Brown
• Nevada Smith (1966) as Bill Bowdre
• Fantastic Voyage (1966) as Dr. Duval
• Monday's Child (1967) as Peter Richardson
• Day of the Evil Gun (1968) as Owen Forbes
• A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die (1968) as Tuscosa Marshal Roy W. Colby
• Anzio (1968) as Maj. Gen. Jack Lesley
• Hail, Hero! (1969) as Albert Dixon
• Shark! (1969) as Doc
• My Old Man's Place (1971) as Walter Pell
• I Kiss the Hand (1973) as Don Angelino Ferrante
• Ricco the Mean Machine (1973) as Don Vito
• The Man from Independence (1974) as Tom Pendergast
• Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (1974) as The Inspector
• The Antichrist (1974) as Bishop Ascanio Oderisi
• The Police Can't Move (1975) as Armando Di Federico
• Rome Armed to the Teeth (1976) as Ruini
• Ab morgen sind wir reich und ehrlich (1976) as Mike Jannacone
• La spiaggia del desiderio (1976) as Antonio
• The Sentinel (1977) as Monsignor Franchino
• Gli ultimi angeli (1978) as Il nonno
• Bermuda: Cave of the Sharks (1978) as Mr. Jackson
• Cyclone (1978) as The Priest
• Porco mondo (1978)
• Covert Action (1978) as CIA Chief of Station, Athens
• The Humanoid (1979) as Dr. Kraspin
• Signs of Life (1989) as Owen Coughlin
• Grandpa (1990) (Last appearance)

External links

• Arthur Kennedy at the Internet Broadway Database
• Arthur Kennedy at IMDb
• Photographs of Arthur Kennedy tombstone, Nova Scotia.
• Literature on Arthur Kennedy