George Kennedy

Trivia

• Kennedy received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to motion pictures, located at 6352 Hollywood Blvd.
• 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.
• 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 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.
• On television, Kennedy portrayed Carter McKay in the CBS prime time serial Dallas (1978-1991), appearing from 1988-1991.
• The film had two sequels in which Kennedy co-starred.
• In 1984, Kennedy starred opposite Bo Derek in the box-office disaster Bolero. He then appeared in several other minor films including Savage Dawn, The Delta Force, and Creepshow 2 before connecting in the comedy hit The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! in 1988, playing Captain Ed Hocken opposite Leslie Nielsen's Frank Drebin.
• Continuing to work with some of the biggest names in the business, Kennedy co-starred with Clint Eastwood in a pair of films, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot and The Eiger Sanction and with an ensemble cast including Charlton Heston and Ava Gardner in the disaster film Earthquake.
• In 1970 he appeared in the Academy Award-winning film Airport, in which he played one of its key characters, airline troubleshooter Joe Patroni.
• He followed with films such as The Dirty Dozen, Bandolero! and The Boston Strangler.

Quotes

• "When you think of a movie, most people imagine a two hour finished, polished product. But to get to that two hour product, it can take hundreds or thousands of people many months of full time work."
• "Of course, I also attribute some of my hearing loss to being in the infantry in World War II. It's probably a combination of heredity and noise exposure."
• "My father died when I was 4 years old, so I can't really say anything about his hearing."
• "I have been so fortunate and I really am appreciative of the success I've had."
• "I had the good fortune of speaking with Orson Wells many decades ago and he said 'Success is primarily luck anyway.' And I have been very lucky. Of course, Orson Wells was enormously talented and brilliant - so who am I to argue with him!"
• “I think its kind of going to be a pain. It's not going to be worth it for half the people on campus.”
• “I'm ready this time,”
• “I've been just sitting back watching, ... But there are things in Fairfield that need to be addressed.”
• “We have to find a way to replace the question mark following Idaho with an exclamation mark,”
• “Of course, I also attribute some of my hearing loss to being in the infantry in World War II. It's probably a combination of heredity and noise exposure.”