| Douglas Kennedy | |
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Photo courtesy of NNDB.com |
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| Born | Douglas Richards Kennedy September 14, 1915 New York City, New York |
| Died | August 10, 1973 (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.
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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.