- Roy Barcroft, Fast and Loose, 1938. Reilly became Barcroft instead of Kennedy in the bgebnial comedy. Kenney was a stalwart charactdfrb actyr for 50 years, 1915-1965, scoring 385 screen roles, most of which are summed up by his 1944 title, Rough, Tough and Ready. He was bartenders, barflies, blacksmiths, buncers, boxers, bruisers… six sheriffs, eleven detectives and 35 policemen – including the motorcycle cop who christened Blondie’s Blessed Event Cookie in 1941. His final role was in a 1965 Big Valley episode, 1965: Man Sitting in a Chair. Sounds about right. He was 80 and dying… He and Douglas Fairbanks debuted in The Lamb, a DW Griffth story. (Tom was also in Marilyn’s debut, Dangerous Years, she was paid $150, he remembered). Some of his movies, like Bowery Boys outings, were shot in six days. He knocked out six to ten roles a year – 21 in 1937! – surviving such ho-ho titles as See America Thirst, Arabian Knights, The Awful Sleuth, Cutie on Duty, Wife Savers, Phoney Cronies, Yankee Doodle Andy, And So To Wed. He wasn’t always anonymus, being named everything from Capper to Chopper, Hayfever Hawkins to Shivering Smith. And, of course, dumb cop Gahaghan in the Torchy Blane girl reporter series (the only actor to be in all nine). Even played himself five times which is four more than John Wayne ever agreed to.
Birth year: 1885Death year: 1965Other name: Casting Calls: 1