Edgar Kennedy
Known for
Across changing tastes and formats, Edgar Kennedy has stayed an American actor whose work covers more eras of the industry than most. 'A Star Is Born' is close behind in visibility. Steady employment, rather than one breakout, gives the career its shape. 'Duck Soup' remains the reference point, thanks largely to Street Vendor.
Edgar Kennedy
211 Movies
Across changing tastes and formats, Edgar Kennedy has stayed an American actor whose work covers more eras of the industry than most. 'A Star Is Born' is close behind in visibility. Steady employment, rather than one breakout, gives the career its shape. 'Duck Soup' remains the reference point, thanks largely to Street Vendor.
Movies
Plays Street Vendor
Duck Soup
1933
Plays Lieutenant Miller
It's a Wonderful World
1939
Plays Collis P. Kennedy
Bacon Grabbers
1929
Plays Pop Randall
A Star Is Born
1937
Plays Police Captain
Anchors Aweigh
1945
Plays Elmer
Westward Passage
1932
Plays Uncle Edgar
Perfect Day
1929
Plays Joe Bledsoe
Air Raid Wardens
1943
Plays Kelsey
Professional Sweetheart
1933
Plays Motorist
Two Tars
1928
Plays Sheriff
San Francisco
1936
Plays The Husband, Mr Glenders
Limousine Love
1928
Plays Insp. Mulrooney
It Happened Tomorrow
1944
Plays Edgar
Dummy Ache
1936
Plays Happy Moran
King Kelly of the U.S.A.
1934
Plays Oscar McGonigle
Twentieth Century
1934
Plays Judd
Heaven Only Knows
1947
Plays Captain Mack
Small Town Girl
1936
Plays Police Lt. Garrison
Super-Sleuth
1937
Plays Kegs McKeever
In Old California
1942
Plays Chairman - Peace Conference
Diplomaniacs
1933
Plays Sweeney
Unfaithfully Yours
1948
Plays Landlord
Angora Love
1929
Plays Nepomuk - the Hermit
Hitler's Madman
1943
Plays Jake the Bartender
The Sin of Harold Diddlebock
1947
Plays Uncle Charlie
My Dream Is Yours
1949
Plays Onderdonk
Little Big Shot
1935
Plays Spike
Double Wedding
1937
Plays Herbert
Heat Lightning
1934
Plays Lover
Twenty Minutes of Love
1914
Plays Striking Baker
Dough and Dynamite
1914
Plays Cop
King for a Night
1933
Plays Sheriff Judd
Robin Hood of El Dorado
1936
Plays George Browning
Dr. Christian Meets the Women
1940
Plays Herman Wilson
Kid Millions
1934
Plays Officer Kennedy
Unaccustomed as We Are
1929
Plays 2nd Sailor
Great Gobs!
1929
Plays Cop (as Ed Kennedy)
The Finishing Touch
1928
Plays Jimmie Pierson
Flirting with Danger
1934
Plays Cornelius Cornpone
Li'l Abner
1940
Plays Mayor Moe Carson
There's One Born Every Minute
1942
Plays Darsey
True Confession
1937
Plays Bicarbonate
Yours for the Asking
1936
Plays Detective
The Big Kick
1930
Plays Tough Guy in Bar
His Favorite Pastime
1914
Plays Bugs Leary
Hey! Hey! USA
1938
Plays Sam Gilroy
Scarlet River
1933
Plays Smiley Dugan
The Falcon Strikes Back
1943
Plays Healy, Process Server
We're Rich Again
1934
Plays Dr. Glenn
Blondie in Society
1941
Latest Trailers
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My Dream Is Yours
Full Filmography
My Dream Is Yours
Uncle Charlie
1949
Film
Unfaithfully Yours
Sweeney
1948
Film
Heaven Only Knows
Judd
1947
Film
The Sin of Harold Diddlebock
Jake the Bartender
1947
Film
Do or Diet
Edgar
1947
Film
Trouble or Nothing
Edgar
1946
Film
Captain Tugboat Annie
Captain Bullwinkle
1945
Film
The Big Beef
Edgar Kennedy
1945
Film
You Drive Me Crazy
Edgar
1945
Film
Photos
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Edgar Kennedy still alive?
Edgar Kennedy passed away on November 9, 1948 at age 58.
What are the most famous roles of Edgar Kennedy?
Edgar Kennedy is best known for roles in Duck Soup, A Star Is Born, Anchors Aweigh.
How many movies has Edgar Kennedy been in?
Over a 35-year career (since 1913), Edgar Kennedy has appeared in 211 movies and 0 TV shows.
What was Edgar Kennedy's first movie?
The career of Edgar Kennedy began with The Rural Third Degree (1913).
What is Edgar Kennedy's most recent movie or series?
Edgar Kennedy's most recent release is My Dream Is Yours, which premiered on April 15, 1949.
Edgar Kennedy
1890-04-25 · Monterey, California, USA
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.