Forgotten Hollywood

Manny P. here…

   As news broke, yesterday was a particularly rough day for friends and fans of cinema, television, and radio broadcasting:

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   George Kennedy was a consummate character actor whose career spanned six decades. He’s best remembered for being the prison pal of Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke, which earned him an Oscar; and as Joe Patroni in the Airport series of disaster films.

   Born in New York City, Kennedy’s father was an orchestra leader and his mother was a ballet dancer. During World War II, he served in the United States Army for sixteen years, having seen combat and working in Armed Forces Radio. He was involved with the opening of the first Army Information Office, which provided technical assistance to films and television shows, like The Phil Silvers Show.    GEORGE KENNEDY —>

   Beginning in 1960, he appeared in memorable movies, including Spartacus, Shenandoah, Lonely are the Brave, Charade, Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte, The Sons of Katie Elder, Flight of the Phoenix, In Harm’s Way, The Dirty Dozen, The Ballad of Josie, The Boston Strangler, Cahill U.S. Marshall, The Eiger Sanction, Bolero, Death on the Nile, and Earthquake. He shared screen time with some of the greatest actors of Hollywood’s Golden Age, such as James Stewart (one of his closest pals), Audrey Hepburn, Kirk Douglas, Cary Grant, Walter Matthau, Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Joseph Cotten, John Wayne, Peter Finch, Ernest Borgnine, Clint Eastwood, Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner, Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, Tony Curtis, Lee Marvin, Jack Lemmon, Peter Ustinov, Sir Richard Attenborough, David Niven, Dame Maggie Smith, Angela Lansbury, Henry Fonda, Bo Derek, and the list goes on. In the 1990s, George was a mainstay on the Naked Gun series of comedies.

   Kennedy also guest-starred in television programs, including Gunsmoke, Peter Gunn, Maverick, Have Gun Will Travel, Bonanza, The Andy Griffith Show, Death Valley Days, Perry Mason, Dr. Kildare, The Untouchables, McHale’s Navy, The Virginian, Ironside, Daniel Boone, and starred in a number of episodes of Sarge, The Blue Knight, and Dallas. His last major recurring role was on the daytime soap, The Young and the Restless.

   The durable George Kennedy was 91.

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   A colleague and personal friend in Southern California broadcasting has died. Charlie Tuna was a legendary Boss Jock on 93 AM KHJ during its heyday, working alongside Robert W. Morgan, Real Don Steele, and Humble Harv. I was fortunate to work with Charlie during my years at 11-10 AM KRLA, 104.3 FM KBIG, and 94.3 KIK-FM. He also had on-air shifts on KIIS-FM, KTNQ, KHTZ, KODJ, KMPC, KLAC, and most recently, KRTH; all in the Los Angeles metro market. Art Ferguson was his actual name.

   Tuna appeared in the movie Rollercoaster. He’s been the backstage announcer on a number of television game shows. He was also the voice for the last two years of television’s syndicated Mike Douglas Show and the late night Thicke of the Night. In 2012 to 2014, he became the voice of Los Angeles independent station KDOC-TV. Tuna raised nearly $2.5 million for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles with his annual Tunathon (2004–2007). In 1997, Los Angeles Radio People readers voted him one of the Top 10 Los Angeles Radio Personalities of All Time; and he was elected by his LARadio.com broadcast peers as one of the 2007 and 2013 Top 10 Los Angeles Radio Personalities. Tuna lived in Tarzana and served as the city’s honorary mayor since 1977.

   Rest well my friend. Charlie Tuna was 71.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 1st, 2016 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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