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This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (November 2007) |
- For other people named Kevin McCarthy, see Kevin McCarthy.
| Kevin McCarthy | |
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 in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) |
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| Born | February 15, 1914 Seattle, Washington |
Kevin McCarthy (born February 15, 1914) is an American actor.
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Biography
Career
In 1949, he was cast as Biff in the London company of Death of a Salesman, starring Paul Muni. A film was made in 1951 and he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role.1
McCarthy went on to have a long and distinguished career as an in-demand character actor. He has had some starring roles sprinkled in his career, most notably the science fiction film classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers. On television, he had roles in two short-lived series: The Survivors with Lana Turner; and Flamingo Road as Claude Weldon, father of the Morgan Fairchild character. He also was in an episode of The Twilight Zone in Long Live Walter Jameson in 1960.
McCarthy is one of three actors (along with Dick Miller and Robert Picardo) frequently cast by director Joe Dante. Despite his advanced age, McCarthy has four feature films completed or in production in 2007.
McCarthy also played the criminal, Norman Mailbag in the Mathnet episode, The Case of the Dirty Money.
Personal life
McCarthy was born in Seattle, Washington, the son of Martha Therese (née Preston) and Roy Winfield McCarthy.2 McCarthy's father was from a wealthy Irish Catholic family based in Minnesota, and his mother was born in Washington state to a Protestant father and a Jewish mother.3 He is the brother of the late author Mary McCarthy, and a distant cousin of former U.S. senator and presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy. He graduated from Campion High School in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin in 1932.
Beginning in 1942, McCarthy had a long and close friendship with the acclaimed actor Montgomery Clift. McCarthy and Clift were cast in the same play together, Ramon Naya's Mexican Mural. The two of them, along with McCarthy's wife Augusta Dabney McCarthy, quickly became the best of friends. They socialized together and acted in several projects together.
McCarthy was also there the night in 1956 when Clift wrapped his car around a telephone pole in Coldwater Canyon. They had spent the evening at a dinner party at the home of Elizabeth Taylor in Beverly Hills. They left, but minutes later, McCarthy returned to the party. "Monty's been in an accident! I think he's dead!" Clift was seriously injured and his face scarred in the accident, but he survived. Still, his career was never the same after that.4
Partial filmography
McCarthy has appeared in almost 100 films, including:
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References
- ^ Montgomery Clift by Patricia Bosworth, p. 225
- ^ Kevin McCarthy Biography (1914-)
- ^ Irish Echo Online - Arts
- ^ Montgomery Clift by Patricia Bosworth.
External links
