Actor · Acting

Edgar Kennedy

Born 1890-04-25

Died 1948-11-09

📍 Monterey, California, USA

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.

Filmography 234

Laurel & Hardy: Year Two

as (archive footage) (uncredited)

The Our Gang Story

as Officer (archive footage)

When Comedy Was King

as edited from 'A Pair of Tights' (archive footage)

The Golden Age of Comedy

as archive footage

My Dream Is Yours

as Uncle Charlie

Unfaithfully Yours

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

Heaven Only Knows

The Sin of Harold Diddlebock

as Jake the Bartender

Trouble or Nothing

Captain Tugboat Annie

as Captain Bullwinkle

as Edgar Kennedy

You Drive Me Crazy

as Police Captain

The Great Alaskan Mystery

as Bosun Higgins

It Happened Tomorrow

as Insp. Mulrooney

Prunes and Politics

The Girl from Monterrey

as Doc Hogan, Fight Promoter

Hitler's Madman

as Nepomuk - the Hermit

Air Raid Wardens

The Falcon Strikes Back

as Smiley Dugan

Cosmo Jones, Crime Smasher

as Police Chief Murphy

There's One Born Every Minute

as Mayor Moe Carson

In Old California

as Kegs McKeever

Pardon My Stripes

as Warden Bingham

Private Snuffy Smith

as Sgt. Ed Cooper

Westward Ho-Hum

Blondie in Society

An Apple in His Eye

as Edgar Kennedy

Remedy for Riches

as George Browning

as Cornelius Cornpone

Sandy Gets Her Man

as Fire Chief Galvin

Who Killed Aunt Maggie?

as Sheriff Gregory

The Quarterback

The Bride Wore Crutches

as Police Captain McGuire

Dr. Christian Meets the Women

as George Browning

Sandy Is a Lady

as Officer Rafferty

Charlie McCarthy, Detective

as Inspector Dailey

Little Accident

as Paper Hanger

Everything's on Ice

It's a Wonderful World

as Lieutenant Miller

Peck's Bad Boy with the Circus

as Arthur Bailey

as Daniel Webster Smith

as Sheriff Renick

Hollywood Hotel

True Confession

as Police Lt. Garrison

When's Your Birthday?

as Mr. Basscombe

The Other Fellow

Three Men on a Horse

as Harry, the Bartender

Yours for the Asking

as Rudolf Hochstetter

Small Town Girl

as Captain Mack

Robin Hood of El Dorado

as Sheriff Judd

as Edgar Kennedy

The Return of Jimmy Valentine

The Bride Comes Home

$1,000 a Minute

as Police Officer McCarthy

Little Big Shot

A Night at the Biltmore Bowl

as Edgar Kennedy

The Cowboy Millionaire

as Willy 'Persimmon' Bates

Living on Velvet

Rendezvous at Midnight

The Silver Streak

Flirting with Danger

as Jimmie Pierson

The Marines Are Coming

as Sgt. Buck Martin

as Edgar Kennedy

as Herman Wilson

as Officer Thurston

King Kelly of the U.S.A.

We're Rich Again

as Healy, Process Server

Murder on the Blackboard

as Detective Donahue

Money Means Nothing

as Herbert Green

Twentieth Century

as Oscar McGonigle

as Guard (uncredited)

King for a Night

as Street Vendor

Professional Sweetheart

Son of the Border

as Chairman - Peace Conference

A Merchant of Menace

The Penguin Pool Murder

as Officer Donovan

as Water Wagon Driver (uncredited)

Little Orphan Annie

as Daddy Warbucks

as Warden Elmer Jones

Westward Passage

as Buffington-Doorman

as Cop (uncredited)

as Thelma's Last Rescuer

Next Door Neighbors

as Howard J. Green

as Man in Phone Booth

Looser Than Loose

as Night Club Patron

as Quimby the Lawyer

Doctor's Orders

as Mary's Father / Gertie's Uncle

as Fiancee's Father

Fifty Million Husbands

as Officer Kennedy

as Thelma's Father (uncredited)

When the Wind Blows

as Kennedy the Cop (uncredited)

The First Seven Years

as Kennedy the Cop (uncredited)

as Cicero the Cop

Shivering Shakespeare

as Kennedy the Cop (uncredited)

as Station Master Kennedy (uncredited)

as Officer Kennedy

Moan & Groan, Inc.

as Kennedy the Cop (uncredited)

as Diner's Owner

as Collis P. Kennedy

as SFPD Desk Sergeant (uncredited)

They Had to See Paris

as Ed Eggers (uncredited)

Hotter Than Hot

as Orchestra Leader

as Officer Ed Kennedy

Unaccustomed as We Are

as Officer Kennedy

Trent's Last Case

as Inspector Murch

Why Is a Plumber?

A Pair of Tights

as Marion's Boyfriend's Boss

Chasing Husbands

Is Everybody Happy?

Should Married Men Go Home?

as Golfer (uncredited)

Imagine My Embarrassment

as The Husband, Mr Glenders

The Finishing Touch

as Cop (as Ed Kennedy)

The Family Group

as A Photographer

Leave 'Em Laughing

The Chinese Parrot

The Wrong Mr. Wright

The Gay Old Bird

as O.K. McDuff (as Ed Kennedy)

The Better 'Ole

as Corporal Austin

Across the Pacific

Oh! What a Nurse!

as Eric Johnson

The People vs. Nancy Preston

The Golden Princess

as Gewilliker Hay

The Trouble With Wives

as Detective (as Edward Kennedy)

Paths to Paradise

as Detective (uncredited)

All's Swell on the Ocean

Wall Street Blues

Racing for Life

The Battling Fool

as Dan O'Leary (as Ed Kennedy)

Something for Nothing

as Ptomaine Tommy

The Wandering Two

The Little Girl Next Door

The Adventures of Daredevil Jack

Hearts and Flowers

Yankee Doodle in Berlin

as German Prison Guard (uncredited)

She Loved Him Plenty

The Late Lamented

as Art Gallery Operator

as The Detective

The Blue Streak

The Stolen Triumph

as Edwin Rowley, Jr.

as Tony Peanutty - Italian Ward Leader

A Scoundrel's Toll

as Peter X. Bush - Streetcar Superintendent

His Bitter Pill

as Diamond Dan - Jim's Rival

Fatty's Tintype Tangle

Fatty’s Plucky Pup

as Shell Game Operator

Miss Fatty's Seaside Lovers

Mabel’s Wilful Way

Wished on Mabel

That Little Band Of Gold

as Diner / Man in Audience (uncredited)

Fatty’s Reckless Fling

Fatty's New Role

as Handout-Giver (uncredited)

Fatty and Mabel at the San Diego Exposition

as 1st Street Crowd Participant (uncredited)

Mabel and Fatty's Wash Day

as The cafe waiter (uncredited)

Tillie's Punctured Romance

as Restaurant Owner / Banks' Butler (uncredited)

Ambrose's First Falsehood

as Café Proprietor

Getting Acquainted

as Policeman (uncredited)

Leading Lizzie Astray

as The Slicker's Chauffeur

The Noise of Bombs

as Police Chief

Gentlemen of Nerve

Dough and Dynamite

as Striking Baker

as (uncredited)

Mabel's Busy Day

as Tough Hot Dog Customer (uncredited)

as Cyclone Flynn (uncredited)

Caught in a Cabaret

as Cafe Proprietor (uncredited)

Twenty Minutes of Love

Mabel at the Wheel

as Spectator in Grandstand (uncredited)

The Star Boarder

as Landlady's Husband (uncredited)

Cruel, Cruel Love

His Favorite Pastime

as Tough Guy in Bar

as Dance Hall Manager (uncredited)

as Director (uncredited)

A Thief Catcher

as Crook (uncredited)

Making a Living

as Wreck Bystander (uncredited)

Little Billy's Triumph

In the Clutches of the Gang

A Flirt's Mistake

as Cop (uncredited)

A Ride for a Bride

as Mustached Man

Fatty Joins the Force

A Muddy Romance

as Water Policeman

The Speed Kings

as Laughing Spectator

Mabel's Dramatic Career

as Audience Member / Cop in Movie

Mabel's New Hero

A Noise from the Deep

Love and Rubbish

Bangville Police