George Kennedy
George Harris Kennedy, Jr. (born February 18, 1925) is an American actor who has appeared in over 200 film and television productions. He is perhaps most familiar as Dragline in Cool Hand Luke (for which he won an Academy Award), Joe Patroni in the Airport series of disaster movies from the 1970s and comedically as Captain Ed Hocken in the Naked Gun series of movies.
Kennedy became a technical advisor for the television series Sergeant Bilko, where his acting career began with a few one-line parts. After a very brief appearance in 1960’s blockbuster Spartacus, his film career began in 1961 in The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come. He then appeared in several prominent Hollywood movies, 
including Charade (1963) opposite Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Walter Matthau, and James Coburn; 1964’s Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte, opposite Bette Davis, and in such popular 1965 films as the crash-survivor drama The Flight of the Phoenix with James Stewart and the war story In Harm’s Way with John Wayne.
He made numerous television appearances at this stage of his career, on shows like The Andy Griffith Show, Perry Mason, Bonanza, McHale’s Navy and Gunsmoke. He portrayed the character “Blodgett” in a 1966 episode “Return to Lawrence” of the ABC western series The Legend of Jesse James, starring Christopher Jones in the title role.
Then came a career-changing performance as Kennedy won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Cool Hand Luke (1967). He played “Dragline,” a chain-gang convict who at first resents the new prisoner in camp played by Paul Newman, then comes to idolize the rebellious Luke.
Kennedy resides in Eagle, Idaho. He is married to Joan McCarthy and has a daughter, Shaunna, who has struggled with substance abuse. The couple adopted their granddaughter, Taylor, after her mother’s incarceration.
