Arthur Kennedy

albatros1 ( 2008-01-09 )

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Born John Arthur Kennedy in Worcester, Massachusetts, he graduated from Worcester Academy in 1930, and acted both on the stage and screen, receiving a Tony Award for the role of Biff Loman in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (1949). Kennedy also inaugurated three other major characters in Miller plays: Chris Keller in All My Sons (1947), John Proctor in The Crucible (1953), and Walter Franz in The Price (1968). He also received five Academy Award nominations, never winning. He and Claude Rains share the record of four losing nominations for Best Supporting Actor Oscar. He portrayed good guys and bad guys equally, appearing in Western films and police dramas. He also turned in a worthy performance as a surgeon in 1966's Fantastic Voyage. He starred in several well-received films in the late 1940s and the 1950s, including High Sierra, They Died with Their Boots On, Boomerang, Champion, The Window, The Glass Menagerie, Bright Victory, Bend of the River, The Lusty Men, Rancho Notorious, The Desperate Hours, Lawrence of Arabia, The Man From Laramie, The Naked Dawn, Trial, Peyton Place, Some Came Running, A Summer Place and Elmer Gantry.