George Kennedy

George Kennedy was born in 1925 in New York City, right into a family already soaked in music and dance—his mom was a ballet dancer, his dad an orchestra leader. After high school, he went straight into the Army, thinking he’d fly planes but ended up in the infantry instead. The guy saw real action under General Patton and racked up two Bronze Stars, so he wasn’t just playing tough guys on screen, he lived it. Kennedy’s Hollywood career? Absolutely wild. Over 200 roles, bouncing between TV and movies, usually as the guy you’d either trust with your life or cross the street to avoid. He started out in TV Westerns—think Rawhide, Maverick, that era—then made his way into movies like The Sons of Katie Elder and The Flight of the Phoenix. The late '60s were huge for him, especially 1967: The Dirty Dozen, Hurry Sundown, and, yeah, an Oscar for Cool Hand Luke. When disaster flicks took off in the ‘70s, Kennedy was right there—Airport and its sequels, Earthquake, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. The ‘80s? He loosened up, joined Leslie Nielsen for The Naked Gun movies, and honestly proved he could do comedy just as well as drama. He even mixed it up with soap operas, playing Carter McKay on Dallas, plus a stint on The Young and the Restless. He kept working right into his later years—voice work in Cats Don’t Dance, Small Soldiers, and a final turn in The Gambler. Kennedy passed in 2016, just after turning 91. Hollywood legend, through and through.