Edgar Kennedy

Prolific screen comedian Edgar Kennedy's trademark was the "slow burn," an expression of complete and utter frustration expressed through his furrowed brows and a meaty hand passed across his face, which he perfected over the course of a four-decade career that began in silent pictures and later came to include such classics as "Duck Soup" (1933), "Twentieth Century" (1934), "A Star is Born" (1937) and "Unfaithfully Yours" (1948). Burly and balding, Kennedy played middle-class authority figures whose tenuous grip on maintaining the status quo, whether in their homes or the public, was undone by some of the best comedians in show business - from Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy to the Marx Brothers and Wheeler and Woolsey. Most of these turns were supporting and even bit appearances, but Kennedy was also the star of a lengthy series of shorts for RKO in which his Everyman failed to keep the peace in his own house. By the 1940s, Kennedy's ubiquitous presence made him a favorite of film fans and critics alike, who delighted in seeing his slow burn exercised to perfection, even if only for a few moments of screen time. At the time of his death in 1948, Kennedy had filmed some 100 features and over 200 shorts, each of which showcased a top comic talent who gave his all to losing his cool.