Edgar Kennedy

Known For

Acting

Born

Apr 25, 1890

Died

Nov 09, 1948

Place of Birth

Monterey, California, USA

Credits

335 titles

Edgar Kennedy

Biography

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.

Known For

Filmography

2024

Laurel & Hardy: Year Two

(archive footage) (uncredited)

Movie
1994

The Our Gang Story

Officer (archive footage)

Movie
1976

Bob Hope's World of Comedy

Self - Tribute Montage (archive footage)

Movie
1968

The Best of Laurel and Hardy

Officer Kennedy (archive footage)

Movie
1960

When Comedy Was King

(archive footage) (uncredited)

Movie
1957

The Golden Age of Comedy

archive footage

Movie
1949

My Dream Is Yours

Uncle Charlie

Movie
1948

Unfaithfully Yours

Sweeney

Movie
1948

Contest Crazy

Edgar

Movie
1948

Variety Time

Edgar Kennedy (footage from 'I'll Build It Myself') (archive footage)

Movie
1948

Dig That Gold

Edgar Kennedy

Movie
1948

Brother Knows Best

Edgar Kennedy

Movie
1947

Heaven Only Knows

Judd

Movie
1947

The Sin of Harold Diddlebock

Jake the Bartender

Movie
1947

Do or Diet

Edgar

Movie
1946

I'll Build It Myself

Edgar

Movie
1946

Motor Maniacs

Edgar Kennedy

Movie
1946

Trouble or Nothing

Edgar

Movie
1945

Captain Tugboat Annie

Captain Bullwinkle

Movie
1945

The Big Beef

Edgar Kennedy

Movie
1945

You Drive Me Crazy

Edgar

Movie
1945

Anchors Aweigh

Police Captain

Movie
1945

It's Your Move

Edgar Kennedy

Movie
1945

What, No Cigarettes

Edgar Kennedy

Movie
1944

Feather Your Nest

Edgar

Movie
1944

The Great Alaskan Mystery

Bosun Higgins

Movie
1944

It Happened Tomorrow

Insp. Mulrooney

Movie
1944

Radio Rampage

Edgar

Movie
1944

Prunes and Politics

Edgar

Movie
1943

Crazy House

Judge

Movie
1943

The Girl from Monterrey

Doc Hogan, Fight Promoter

Movie
1943

Hitler's Madman

Nepomuk - the Hermit

Movie
1943

Hot Foot

Edgar

Movie
1943

Inferior Decorator

Edgar

Movie
1943

Air Raid Wardens

Joe Bledsoe

Movie
1943

The Falcon Strikes Back

Smiley Dugan

Movie
1943

Hold Your Temper

Edgar

Movie
1943

Cosmo Jones, Crime Smasher

Police Chief Murphy

Movie
1942

Duck Soup

Edgar

Movie
1942

Hillbilly Blitzkrieg

Sgt. Homer Gatling

Movie
1942

There's One Born Every Minute

Mayor Moe Carson

Movie
1942

Cooks and Crooks

Edgar

Movie
1942

In Old California

Kegs McKeever

Movie
1942

Pardon My Stripes

Warden Bingham

Movie
1942

Private Snuffy Smith

Sgt. Ed Cooper

Movie
1942

Rough on Rents

Edgar Kennedy

Movie
1941

A Quiet Fourth

Edgar

Movie
1941

Gangs Of The City

Biff

Movie
1941

I'll Fix It

Edgar

Movie
1941

Westward Ho-Hum

Edgar

Movie