Edgar Kennedy
Edgar Livingston Kennedy (born April 26, 1890 in Monterey County , California ( USA ), † November 9, 1948 in Los Angeles , California, USA) was an American film actor and director .
Life
The 1.85 meter tall Kennedy has appeared in over 400 films, most of which are comedies. He is considered the inventor and master of the so-called slow burn, which is why he was sometimes referred to as "old slow burn". His specialty was the cinematic representation of painfully restrained, boiling anger. In many films, for example, he mimed an average man who is plagued by all kinds of afflictions, but who is still in control of the most absurd mishaps. The Average Man was, after all, a talkie series with Edgar Kennedy. Often he played a policeman whose face shows how much he is seething in the face of what is offered to him, then in silent desperation pushes his cap back, scratches his bald head or runs his hand over his face. He had his first film roles from 1911 in comedies staged by Mack Sennett , in which he mostly wore the police uniform, which earned him the name " Keystone Cop " (named after the film company Sennetts). He played here alongside comedians like Charlie Chaplin , Fatty Arbuckle and Ben Turpin . Before that, Kennedy had got by with odd jobs, including appearing as a prize boxer, set pusher and variety actor.
For the film production company Educational, to which he transferred, Kennedy also worked as a director. He finally took on this activity for the film producer Hal Roach . He also worked as a screenwriter and "gagman" or gag inventor. Above all, however, he appeared for Roach in a specially created film series and acted alongside Roach's contract partners Laurel and Hardy . In 1928 he was first appeared in a Laurel-and-Hardy comedy, Leave 'em Laughing ( Let them laugh ), where he as worked as a policeman in four other films in his signature role. In a total of ten films, Kennedy became a congenial and unforgettable partner of the legendary comedian duo, alongside Finlayson , Gilbert , Hall and Sandford . Kennedy's portrayal of the lemonade seller in the Marx Brothers comedy The Marx Brothers at War from 1933 was also unforgettable .
Edgar Kennedy died of throat cancer and was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City , California .
Filmography (selection)
As an actor
- 1913: Twixt Love and Fire
- 1914: Tillie's troubled romance
- 1915: A Submarine Pirate
- 1920: The Huntsman
- 1926: The Deserter ( Across the Pacific )
- 1927: The Chinese Parrot ( The Chinese Parrot )
- 1928: The Unfinished Prefabricated House (The Finishing Touch)
- 1928: Only with laughing gas (Leave 'Em Laughing)
- 1928: Dick and Doof play golf ( Should Married Men Go Home? )
- 1929: A Country Party (Perfect Day)
- 1929: The Burning Neighbor (Unaccustomed As We Are)
- 1929: Harold, the dragon slayer (Welcome Danger)
- 1930: Give Me the Hammer (Night Owls)
- 1933: The Marx Brothers at War ( Duck Soup )
- 1934: Napoleon on Broadway ( Twentieth Century )
- 1935: Living on Velvet
- 1936: small town girl ( Small Town Girl )
- 1936: The Avenger ( Robin Hood of El Dorado )
- 1936: San Francisco
- 1937: A Star Is Born (A Star Is Born)
- 1939: Above and Above (It's a Wonderful World)
- 1943: Hitler's Madman
- 1943: Terror of All Spies (Air Raid Wardens)
- 1944: It Happened Tomorrow (It Happened Tomorrow)
- 1945: Vacation in Hollywood (Anchors Aweigh)
- 1947: Crazy Wednesday (The Sin of Harold Diddlebock)
- 1949: My Dream Is Yours
As a director
- 1928: From Soup to Dessert (From Soup to Nuts)
literature
- Bill Cassara: Edgar Kennedy. Master of the Slow Burn. BearManor Media, Boalsburg PA 2005, ISBN 1-59393-018-6 .
- Rainer Dick: Laurel & Hardy. The greatest comedians of all time (= Heyne-Bücher 32, Heyne-Filmbibliothek. No. 221). Original edition. Heyne, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-453-09006-3 .
- Rainer Dick: Lexicon of film comedians. (Their lives, their roles, their films - over 300 comedians: Rowan Atkinson, Zasu Pitts, Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Jim Carrey, Leslie Nielsen, Laurel & Hardy and many more). Lexikon-Imprint-Verlag, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-89602-223-7 .
Web links
- Edgar Kennedy in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Edgar Kennedy in the nndb (English)
- Edgar Kennedy in the database of Find a Grave (English)
- Edgar Kennedy in the Way Out West tent of the Laurel & Hardy Society, with some film images (English)
- Edgar Kennedy - Master of the Slow Burn (English), contains the text of the foreword and introduction to the book by Bill Cassara (see under literature), plus a number of illustrations
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Kennedy, Edgar |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Kennedy, Edgar Livingston (full name) |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American film actor and film director |
DATE OF BIRTH | April 26, 1890 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Monterey County , California ( USA ) |
DATE OF DEATH | November 9, 1948 |
Place of death | Los Angeles , California , USA |