Elisberg Industries
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Products
    • Books
    • Movies
  • About Elisberg Industries
    • Our Corporate Board
    • Information Overstock
    • Elisberg Industries Entertainment Information
    • Elisberg Statistical Center of American Research
    • Consultancy Service
  • Contact
    • How to Find Us
  • Kudos
  • Good Things to Know
    • The BOB Page
    • Sites You Might Actually Like
Decent Quality Since 1847

Remembering George Kennedy

3/1/2016

2 Comments

 
I was sorry to hear that George Kennedy passed away on Monday.  Happily, he lived a good, long life and made it to 91.  Because of the vast career he had -- 58 years! (And as recently as 2014)-- it probably gets overlooked, but he won an Oscar in 1967 as Best Supporting Actor for Cool Hand Luke.  But I remember him most for the Naked Gun films, since I worked with him on the series, during my ne'er-do-well days as a film publicist.
Picture
George tended to play a tough guy a lot -- and he was imposing, a tall, hefty guy.  But he was also quite a nice fellow, and a pleasure to work with.  Never demanding, and pretty accommodating.  He also was exceedingly professional, and one of my favorite moments on the films is a bizarre, odd one for a person to appreciate as much as I did, and it centered on George.

For inexplicable reasons, I absolutely love excellence of craft.  It doesn't have to be anything big or flashy, but when people do things exceedingly well (whatever the job or activity), I love it.  And there was a scene in Naked Gun 2-1/2 that was just a pleasure for me to watch, even if it was mind-numbingly boring for everyone else.

The scene took place in a bar, and Frank Drebin (played by Leslie Nielsen) had been broken up from his beloved Jane (played by Priscilla Presley) and was drowning his sorrows.  George Kennedy's character Ed comes over to buck up his spirits, and when he notices that Jane is across the room, encourages him to talk to her.  "Go to her, Frank.  Go onnnnn."

Leslie had a lot of dialogue in the scene, and did it well, but there was always something that wasn't exactly the way he or director David Zucker wanted it.  George didn't have nearly as much to do compared to Leslie, whose character was lost in a funk and unburdening himself, but George still had to repeat it all every take, of course.  And he was impeccable, each time.  As the takes went on, I stationed myself nearby to watch these two craftsman do the scene over and over, probably 10-15 times, and what I most loved is that each time, George Kennedy delivered that one particular line, "Go to her, Frank.  Go onnnnn," almost exactly the same, every single take. The same pacing, same slight pause, same inflection, same stretching of the word, "onnnnn."  I just absolutely loved watching it.

This is the scene.  No need watch the whole thing, it's long (but pretty funny, so you might want to...), but if you prefer to jump to that single line, it comes in at the 2:54 mark.

There's one other thing that I'll always remember about George.  

This is something that most people are unaware of, bordering on the totally unknown.  But during the filming of Naked Gun 33-1/3, he got extremely ill.  It was an odd illness, sort of a case of vertigo, for lack of a better word.  He had great difficulty standing, and it left him intensely weak. It was so problematic that for a very difficult day when it all came down and hit him, the filmmakers really didn't know what they were going to do. You couldn't recast him, it was a sequel, and they'd already been filming for a couple weeks.  You couldn't really write him out of the script, but they might have to.  There was the thought of changing the schedule on the hope that he'd be better later, though that was uncertain and impractical.  In the end, George, who was pretty darn tough (he'd been a Marine, and for a long while expected that would be his career), solved the issue:  he insisted he would stay on the film and make it through.

And he did.  But it was incredibly demanding.  He eventually recovered, but not till after filming was over.  So, for the rest of shooting, he stayed in his trailer, conserving his strength, usually lying down all day, and only right before they needed him at the very last minute, would he carefully, slowly make it to the set.  (I don't recall if they had a wheelchair for him, but I suspect so.)  And director Peter Segal re-staged scenes so that George could either be seated as much as possible, or stand in just one position.  No walking around and talking -- because he simply couldn't do it.  But he made it through (helped by his above-mentioned professionalism of not having to keep redoing endless takes, which were kept at a minimum), and it's almost imperceptible in the finished film.  I'm guessing almost no one watching the movie has a clue.

There are really only two scenes I recall when you can sort of see he's having difficulty.  One is a scene when he and Norberg (played by O.J. Simpson) go to Frank Drebin's house to convince him to come out of retirement.  George has a  slight difficultly plopping down into the couch, but the most noticeable moment is when Leslie Nielsen gives him a cupcake he's baked, and George is so weak he has a hard time holding it and taking a bite.  (Yes, that's how tough it was for him -- and how tough a guy George was to make it through the entire film.)

The other scene is the famous opening, that's a spoof of the classic "Potemkin Steps" scene from ​Battleship Potemkin and the homage that The Untouchables did in a train station.  George was undercover as a Red Cap porter, and had to stand throughout it, while fumbling for his gun.  And he does it wonderfully, though there are a few moments if you know precisely what you're looking for where you can see him battling through.  (Fortunately, he was given a baggage cart and then a baby carriage to balance on.)


But he did it.  And he completed the whole movie.  And it was a seriously-impressive achievement.  

When we had the cast party, he still wasn't well-enough to attend, yet he dearly wanted to be there.  He'd made three movies with this group, both cast and crew, and he felt close to everyone.  So, he had the driver, who the company assigned to him for the film, take him to the restaurant and -- even though he couldn't go inside and stand around and dance and socialize -- he sat in the car all night in the parking lot, just so he could be part of it.  And those of us who knew he was there, would go out to his car throughout the night to visit with him, and bring food and drink and celebrate.

He was a good guy.  He had a long life.  

​And here's that opening scene I mention above.  And it's all the more impressive because, if I remember correctly, this was filmed the very day he first came down with his illness -- when the powers-that-be were freaked out because they had absolutely no idea what they were going to do.  And more than anything, George wanted to show the filmmakers that he could do it.  And he did.
​
2 Comments
Chris
3/1/2016 08:13:29 pm

I've run George Kennedy's filmography through my head all day, thinking about favorite films and film moments. I too loved his work in the Naked Gun series. He was perfectly cast as goofily sincere Ed. I had never heard the story about his health problems during Naked Gun 33 1/3. The man was a professional.

The first film that popped into my mind today was Cool Hand Luke, which is likely the case with most male movie lovers of my generation. CHL was assuredly a guy flick and I've talked the film with a lot of guys for a lot of years. George was excellent in it.

I also thought about two other favorites, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot and Charade. He played villains in both, but not your run-of-the-meal toughs. George could really bring out the menace when he needed to and was hyper-effective when a role called for physical intimidation and viciousness.

And I think that's what made George Kennedy so special as a performer. You totally believed him no matter what kind of character he portrayed. Despite an Oscar nod, I don't think he ever got the respect he deserved. It probably didn't help that he made a lot of junk in his career--I still cringe when I think back on sitting through Airport '79!--but you can say that about a lot of great performers. George almost always transcended his material, which placed him in a pretty rarified group of actors.

Reply
Robert Elisberg
3/1/2016 10:37:48 pm

Chris, thanks for taking the time to write about George. The thing to keep in mind is how remarkably long his career was -- 58 years. He even was in a major movie ("The Gambler") as recently as two years ago. That speaks volumes.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Picture
    Elisberg Industries gets a commission if you click here before shopping on Amazon.
    Picture
    Follow @relisberg

    Author

    Robert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. 

    Elisberg is a two-time recipient of the Lucille Ball Award for comedy screenwriting. He's written for film, TV, the stage, and two best-selling novels, is a regular columnist for the Writers Guild of America and was for
    the Huffington Post.  Among his other writing, he has a long-time column on technology (which he sometimes understands), and co-wrote a book on world travel.  As a lyricist, he is a member of ASCAP, and has contributed to numerous publications.



    Picture
           Feedspot Badge of Honor

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013

    Categories

    All
    Animals
    Audio
    Audio Land
    Books
    Busienss
    Business
    Chicago
    Consumer Product
    Education
    Email Interview
    Entertainment
    Environment
    Fine Art
    Food
    From The Management
    Health
    History
    Huffery
    Humor
    International
    Internet
    Journalism
    Law
    Los Angeles
    Media
    Morning News Round Up
    Movies
    Music
    Musical
    Personal
    Photograph
    Piano Puzzler
    Politics
    Popular Culture
    Profiles
    Quote Of The Day
    Radio
    Religion
    Restaurants
    Science
    Sports
    Technology
    Tech Tip
    Theater
    The Writers Workbench
    Tidbits
    Travel
    Tv
    Twitter
    Video
    Videology
    Well Worth Reading
    Words-o-wisdom
    Writing

    RSS Feed

© Copyright Robert J. Elisberg 2023
Contact Us    About EI    Chicago Cubs
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Products
    • Books
    • Movies
  • About Elisberg Industries
    • Our Corporate Board
    • Information Overstock
    • Elisberg Industries Entertainment Information
    • Elisberg Statistical Center of American Research
    • Consultancy Service
  • Contact
    • How to Find Us
  • Kudos
  • Good Things to Know
    • The BOB Page
    • Sites You Might Actually Like