A versatile character actor for over five decades, Academy Award winner George Kennedy brought both gravity and boundless energy to a considerable list of memorable pictures ranging from “Cool Hand Luke” (1967) and “The Dirty Dozen” (1967) to the campy “Airport” pictures and the “Naked Gun” franchise. A near two-decade stint in the military preceded his acting pursuits, where he logged numerous appearances as heavies and rough-hewn types in pictures like “Charade” (1963) and “The Sons of Katie Elder” (1964). However, his turn as a tough Southern prisoner who becomes Paul Newman’s disciple of
