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.
Acting (227 movies)
Duck Soup
1933
It Happened Tomorrow
1944
Blondie in Society
1941
Double Wedding
1937
Cruel, Cruel Love
1914
Dough and Dynamite
1914
The Sin of Harold Diddlebock
1947
King Kelly of the U.S.A.
1934
Li'l Abner
1940
My Dream Is Yours
1949
A Star Is Born
1937
Twentieth Century
1934
Caught in a Cabaret
1914
The Trouble With Wives
1925
In Old California
1942
Air Raid Wardens
1943
Hollywood Hotel
1938
The Falcon Strikes Back
1943
The Our Gang Story
1994
The Chinese Parrot
1927
It's a Wonderful World
1939
Whose Baby?
1917
The Family Group
1928
Imagine My Embarrassment
1928
Is Everybody Happy?
1928
The Booster
1928
Chasing Husbands
1928
Great Gobs!
1929
Night Owls
1930
Perfect Day
1929
Should Married Men Go Home?
1928
The Finishing Touch
1928
Leave 'Em Laughing
1928
Bacon Grabbers
1929
Two Tars
1928
Unaccustomed as We Are
1929
The Star Boarder
1914
Twenty Minutes of Love
1914
The Knockout
1914
Gentlemen of Nerve
1914
Getting Acquainted
1914
A Thief Catcher
1914
The Penguin Pool Murder
1932
Robin Hood of El Dorado
1936
Little Big Shot
1935
Son of the Border
1933
When Comedy Was King
1960
Small Town Girl
1936
Little Orphan Annie
1932
Fatty's Tintype Tangle
1915
Racing for Life
1924
Tillie and Gus
1933
The Cowboy Millionaire
1935
True Confession
1937
Flirting with Danger
1934
Three Men on a Horse
1936
Making a Living
1914
Fatty Joins the Force
1913
Mad Holiday
1936
The Girl from Monterrey
1943
Leading Lizzie Astray
1914
The Marines Are Coming
1934
The Golden Princess
1925
Super-Sleuth
1937
Money Means Nothing
1934
Thieves
1930
The Late Lamented
1917
A Merchant of Menace
1933
Hey! Hey! USA
1938
Cosmo Jones, Crime Smasher
1943
Fatty’s Plucky Pup
1915
Will Power
1936
Dumb Daddies
1928
Peck's Bad Boy with the Circus
1938
Moan & Groan, Inc.
1929
Who Killed Aunt Maggie?
1940
Living on Velvet
1935
Something for Nothing
1923
The Other Fellow
1937
Professional Sweetheart
1933
Remedy for Riches
1940
The Better 'Ole
1926
We're Rich Again
1934
The Little Girl Next Door
1923
The Great Alaskan Mystery
1944
Gridiron Flash
1934
When's Your Birthday?
1937
The Silver Streak
1934
When the Wind Blows
1930
Woman Wanted
1935
Charlie McCarthy, Detective
1939
There's One Born Every Minute
1942
The Bride Comes Home
1935
Limousine Love
1928
Private Snuffy Smith
1942
Anchors Aweigh
1945
The Gangsters
1913
The First Seven Years
1930
Peeping Pete
1913
A Muddy Romance
1913
Directing (11 movies)
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