vienna
02-29-16, 08:13 PM
George Kennedy, highly regarded film and television actor, has passed away at age 91:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/01/movies/george-kennedy-versatile-actor-who-won-an-oscar-for-cool-hand-luke-dies-at-91.html?_r=0
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001421/?ref_=nv_sr_3
Back in the mid-70s, Kennedy starred in a TV series, The Blue Knight, based on the Joseph Wambaugh novels about life in the Los Angeles Police Department. I recall one incident when I was walking through downtown LA and I passed by an alleyway. Coming down the alleyway. about mid-block was an LAPD officer and a couple of civilians. What caught my eye was the fact this was the biggest LAPD officer i had ever seen. The LAPD, at the time, was trying to keep up a sort of Adam-12 image: young patrol officer, lean, compact, athletic, robotic, leading to a sort of cookie cutter force of seemingly interchangable members. Coming form San Francisco, originally, I was more used to the sort SFPD officers who seemed more human and approachable. I looked more closely and realized the LAPD cop was George Kennedy, in costume for filming nearby. In that LAPD uniform, he was a very formidible figure; if he had been an actual officer, he would have had no problem projecting an authoritative presence...
RIP, Mr. Kennedy, and thanks for all the great performances and memories...
<O>
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/01/movies/george-kennedy-versatile-actor-who-won-an-oscar-for-cool-hand-luke-dies-at-91.html?_r=0
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001421/?ref_=nv_sr_3
Back in the mid-70s, Kennedy starred in a TV series, The Blue Knight, based on the Joseph Wambaugh novels about life in the Los Angeles Police Department. I recall one incident when I was walking through downtown LA and I passed by an alleyway. Coming down the alleyway. about mid-block was an LAPD officer and a couple of civilians. What caught my eye was the fact this was the biggest LAPD officer i had ever seen. The LAPD, at the time, was trying to keep up a sort of Adam-12 image: young patrol officer, lean, compact, athletic, robotic, leading to a sort of cookie cutter force of seemingly interchangable members. Coming form San Francisco, originally, I was more used to the sort SFPD officers who seemed more human and approachable. I looked more closely and realized the LAPD cop was George Kennedy, in costume for filming nearby. In that LAPD uniform, he was a very formidible figure; if he had been an actual officer, he would have had no problem projecting an authoritative presence...
RIP, Mr. Kennedy, and thanks for all the great performances and memories...
<O>