George Kennedy, star of ‘Cool Hand Luke’ dies at 91

Kennedy’s grandson Cory Schenkel announced the actor’s passing on Facebook Sunday morning. In one scene, he gets to clobber Newman, perhaps the world’s biggest movie star at the time.

He appeared in several 1970s disaster movies, including all four “Airport” movies and “Earthquake” in 1974.

Kennedy won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 1968 for his role as Dragline in Cool Hand Luke. Luke is bloodied and battered by Dragline in a makeshift boxing match, but refuses to stay down, earning the respect of his tormenter and the other prisoners.

In his review of the film, the Los Angeles Times” Charles Champlin noted that “it will nearly certainly do for George Kennedy what “Cat Ballou’ did for Lee Marvin – pay off with stardom in a long honorable hitch at lesser servitude”.

Kennedy, who played President Warren G. Harding on the 1979 miniseries “Backstairs at the White House”, also played cattle rancher Carter McKay on “Dallas” from 1988 to 1991.

Schenkel says Kennedy continued to work on films even after joining his extended family in Boise, where his Oscar sat on the fireplace mantle.

Born George Kennedy Jr. on February 18, 1925, he came from a show business background.

Interestingly, Kennedy has a connection to last night’s Academy Awards, as he frequently collaborated with screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, whom Bryan Cranston was nominated for portraying this year. He then joined the U.S. Army Air Corps before switching to the Army, because of his height, to fight in World War II, according to his 2011 memoir, “Trust Me“. If you would like to discuss another topic, look for a relevant article.

“Movies have been my favorite entertainment”, Kennedy said in a 2013 interviewwith CBS affiliate KBOI.

Fans and former co-stars have paid tribute to the late actor on social media, describing him as “a true talent”. Besides Schenkel, he is survived by daughter Shannon Sullivan and granddaughter Taylor Kennedy.