From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Edgar Livingston Kennedy (April 26, 1890 – November 9, 1948) was an American comedic film character actor, known as "Slow Burn". A slow burn is an exasperated facial expression, performed very deliberately; Kennedy embellished this by rubbing his hand over his bald head and across his face, in an attempt to hold his temper. Kennedy is best known for a small role as a lemonade vendor in the Marx Brothers film Duck Soup, as well as the many Hal Roach films he appeared in.
Kennedy became so identified with frustration that practically every studio hired him to play hotheads. He often played dumb cops, detectives, and even a prison warden; sometimes he was a grouchy moving man, truck driver, or blue-collar workman. His character usually lost his temper at least once. In Diplomaniacs, Kennedy presides over an international tribunal, where Wheeler & Woolsey want to do something about world peace. "Well, ya can't do anything about it here", yells Kennedy, "this is a peace conference!" Kennedy, established as the poster boy for frustration, even starred in an instructional film titled The Other Fellow, in which loudmouthed roadhog Edgar always vents his anger on other drivers (each one played by Kennedy as well), little realizing that, to them, he is "the other fellow."
Perhaps his most unusual roles were as a puppeteer in the detective mystery The Falcon Strikes Back and as a philosophical bartender inspired to create exotic cocktails in Harold Lloyd's last film, The Sin of Harold Diddlebock (1947). He also played comical detectives opposite two titans of acting: John Barrymore in Twentieth Century (1934) and Rex Harrison in Unfaithfully Yours (1948); in the latter, he tells conductor Harrison that "Nobody handles Handel like you handle Handel."
Kennedy died of throat cancer at the Motion Picture Hospital, San Fernando Valley on 9 November 1948. His body was interred at the Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, Los Angeles County, California.
9
2
0
9
2
1
9
2
2
9
2
3
9
2
4
9
2
5
Two thieves discover a professional and personal relationship when individual heist plans are thrown...
More info9
2
6
9
2
7
9
2
8
Members of a municipal band, Stanley and Oliver seem to be always following someone else's lead, rat...
More info
Stan complains of a toothache and he and Ollie visit the dentist. Ollie gets his teeth pulled by mis...
More info
Stan and Ollie are hired to build a house in just one day. When they are done, a bird lands on the h...
More info
9
2
9
Two families embark on a pleasant Sunday picnic but manage to run into a variety of issues with thei...
More info9
3
0
Policeman Edgar Kennedy is told by his chief he better stop a string of burglaries that have been ha...
More info9
3
1
A truck driver "too lazy to work and too nervous to steal" gets mixed up in racketeering. Naturally ...
More info9
3
2
New York schoolmarm Hildegarde Withers assists a detective when a body of unscrupulous stockbroker G...
More info
A struggling writer divorces his wife to pursue his career without interference, but they meet in Eu...
More info9
3
3
9
3
4
A temperamental Broadway producer trains an untutored actress, but when she becomes a star, she prov...
More info
There are plenty of guilty secrets at the school where Hildegarde Withers teaches. When she finds th...
More info9
3
5
Join vocalists broadcasting from the Biltmore Bowl in Los Angeles....
More info9
3
6
A beautiful singer and a battling priest try to reform a Barbary Coast saloon owner in the days befo...
More info9
3
7
Esther Blodgett is just another starry-eyed farm kid trying to break into the movies. Waitressing at...
More info9
3
8
9
3
9
9
4
0
9
4
1
9
4
2
Boston pharmacist Tom Craig comes to Sacramento, where he runs afoul of local political boss Britt D...
More info9
4
3
Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson are Broadway stars who return to Universal Studios to make another movie....
More info
The Falcon is framed for the murder of a banker and the theft of war bonds. He makes his escape into...
More info9
4
4
A young turn-of-the-century newspaper man finds he can get hold of the next day's paper. This brings...
More info9
4
5
Two sailors on shore leave head out for four days of partying – only to become involved in the affai...
More info9
4
6
9
4
7
Twenty-three years after scoring the winning touchdown for his college football team mild-mannered H...
More info9
4
8
Before he left for a brief European visit, symphony conductor Sir Alfred De Carter casually asked hi...
More info9
4
9
Conceited singer Garry Mitchell refuses to renew his radio contract, so agent Doug Blake decides to ...
More infoRecent movies
| # | Name | Character | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | My Dream Is Yours (1949) | Uncle Charlie | 6 | |
| 2 | Unfaithfully Yours (1948) | Sweeney | 6 | |
| 3 | The Sin of Harold Diddlebock (1947) | Jake the Bartender | - | - |
| 4 | Anchors Aweigh (1945) | Police Captain | 3.5 | |
| 5 | It Happened Tomorrow (1944) | Insp. Mulrooney | 7 | |
| 6 | Crazy House (1943) | Judge | - | - |
| 7 | The Falcon Strikes Back (1943) | Smiley Dugan | 7 | |
| 8 | In Old California (1942) | Kegs McKeever | 6 | |
| 9 | A Star Is Born (1937) | Pop Randall | 6.3 | |
| 10 | San Francisco (1936) | Sheriff | 5 | |
| 11 | A Night at the Biltmore Bowl (1935) | Edgar Kennedy | - | - |
| 12 | Twentieth Century (1934) | Oscar McGonigle | 6 | |
| 13 | Murder on the Blackboard (1934) | Detective Donahue | 6 | |
| 14 | Duck Soup (1933) | Street Vendor | 7.2 | |
| 15 | The Penguin Pool Murder (1932) | Officer Donovan | 7 | |
| 16 | Westward Passage (1932) | Elmer | - | - |
| 17 | Quick Millions (1931) | Cop (uncredited) | - | - |
| 18 | Night Owls (1930) | Officer Kennedy | 7 | |
| 19 | Perfect Day (1929) | Uncle Edgar | 6 | |
| 20 | You're Darn Tootin' (1928) | Director / Writer | 5 | |
| 21 | Leave 'Em Laughing (1928) | Cop | 5 | |
| 22 | The Finishing Touch (1928) | Cop (as Ed Kennedy) | 6 | |
| 23 | Two Tars (1928) | Motorist | 4 | |
| 24 | Paths to Paradise (1925) | Detective (uncredited) | 4 | |
| 25 | His Bitter Pill (1916) | Diamond Dan - Jim's Rival | 5 | |
| 26 | Fatty's Tintype Tangle (1915) | Edgar | 4 | |
| 27 | A Film Johnnie (1914) | Director (uncredited) | 6 | |
| 28 | Making a Living (1914) | Wreck Bystander (uncredited) | 6 | |
| 29 | Little Billy's Triumph (1914) | - | 4 | |
| 30 | The Rounders (1914) | (uncredited) | 5.5 | |
| 31 | Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914) | Restaurant Owner / Banks' Butler (uncredited) | 5 | |
| 32 | A Thief Catcher (1914) | Crook (uncredited) | 6 | |
| 33 | The Star Boarder (1914) | Landlady's Husband (uncredited) | 7 | |
| 34 | Dough and Dynamite (1914) | Striking Baker | 8 | |
| 35 | Mabel at the Wheel (1914) | Spectator in Grandstand (uncredited) | 6 | |
| 36 | Twenty Minutes of Love (1914) | Lover | 5 | |
| 37 | Tango Tangles (1914) | Dance Hall Manager (uncredited) | 7 | |
| 38 | Gentlemen of Nerve (1914) | Policeman | 7 | |
| 39 | Getting Acquainted (1914) | Policeman (uncredited) | 8 | |
| 40 | Mabel's Busy Day (1914) | Tough Hot Dog Customer (uncredited) | 7 | |
| 41 | The Knockout (1914) | Cyclone Flynn (uncredited) | 8 | |
| 42 | Caught in a Cabaret (1914) | Cafe Proprietor (uncredited) | 6 | |
| 43 | His Favorite Pastime (1914) | Tough Guy in Bar | 6 | |
| 44 | Cruel, Cruel Love (1914) | Butler | 5 |
