Arthur Kennedy

American actor John Arthur Kennedy was born on February 17, 1914 in Warchester, Massachusetts. After graduating from the Department of Dramatic Arts at the Carnegie Mellon Institute, he began working for the Globe Theatre Company, touring with the troupe in the Midwest with Shakespeare's repertoire. He managed to attract the attention of the famous British theater actor Maurice Evans, who worked in America, who included him in the composition engaged in the Broadway production of Richard III. Collaborating more

American actor John Arthur Kennedy was born on February 17, 1914 in Warchester, Massachusetts. After graduating from the Department of Dramatic Arts at the Carnegie Mellon Institute, he began working for the Globe Theatre Company, touring with the troupe in the Midwest with Shakespeare's repertoire. He managed to attract the attention of the famous British theater actor Maurice Evans, who worked in America, who included him in the composition engaged in the Broadway production of Richard III. Collaborating with Evans, Kennedy continued to play on stage in Shakespearean plays and modern social dramas, and in 1940, thanks to the participation of the famous James Cagney, received his first film role in the crime film The City That Needs To Be Conquered (Directed by Anatole Litvac and Gene Negulesco). After signing with Warner Brothers, Kennedy soon established himself as a young and promising actor, playing in the films Bad People from Missouri (1941, Ray Enright), West Highway (1941, William McGenn), Desperate Trip (1942, Raoul Walsh), Air Force (1942, Howard Hawks). However, the classical theatrical training Kennedy underwent was virtually unclaimed in his screen roles, and after World War II he returned to the stage. His greatest success on Broadway was his role as Biff in Arthur Miller’s The Death of a Salesman, for which he won the Tony Theatre Award in 1949. At the same time, he continued to act in films and in the fifties several times nominated for the Oscar for the films “Champion” (1949), “Bright Victory” (1951), “The Court” (1955), “Peyton Place” (1957) directed by Mark Robson, “And they ran” (1958) Vincent Minnelli. Despite the fact that the actor never received an Oscar, his role as Sergeant Larry Nivens in Bright Victory earned him two other prestigious cinematic awards - a Golden Globe and a special award awarded by the organization of New York film critics. For the next two decades, Kennedy worked both in the United States and abroad, appearing in films of sometimes disparate quality, but along with outright failures, there were also those in which Kennedy managed to realize his acting talent - such as the adaptation of Sinclair Lewis's novel Elmer Guntry (1960, Richard Brooks), Warrava (1962, directed by Richard Fleischer) or the famous military adventure film Lawrence of Arabia (1962, dir. David Lin). In the eighties, Kennedy left the big screen and lived with his family in a small town in the east of the country. Only in 1989 he appeared in the drama "Life Signs" directed by John David Coles, telling about the lives of unemployed shipbuilders. This picture was the last in the life of the actor, shortly after its appearance at the box office, he died on January 5, 1990 in Branford, Connecticut.