Burton Raphael Kennedy was an American screenwriter and director known mainly for directing Westerns.
34 Facts About Burt Kennedy
1.
2.
Burt Kennedy's parents were dancers in vaudeville and he joined their act, the Dancing Kennedys, when he was 4 years old.
3.
Burt Kennedy graduated school in 1941 and enlisted in the army the following year.
4.
Burt Kennedy received the Silver Star, Bronze Star, and Purple Heart with oak leaf cluster.
5.
Burt Kennedy studied at the Pasadena Playhouse, where he did some acting.
6.
Burt Kennedy said that the competition was easier that way, and if you write a good Western, you're apt to go further faster.
7.
Burt Kennedy used his training as a cavalry officer to secure a job as a fencing trainer and fencing stunt double in films.
8.
Burt Kennedy wrote 13 episodes for a proposed TV series about a Mexican, which John Wayne read and tried to get financed as a vehicle for Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez through Wayne's Batjac Productions.
9.
Also for Batjac, Burt Kennedy wrote Gun the Man Down starring James Arness, and Man in the Vault, a contemporary thriller.
10.
Burt Kennedy wrote The Tall T for Batjac, based on a story by Elmore Leonard.
11.
Burt Kennedy wrote two other scripts, including an adaptation of A Distant Trumpet that was not used.
12.
Burt Kennedy did some uncredited work on The Alamo.
13.
Burt Kennedy made his directorial debut with the Western The Canadians with Robert Ryan, which he wrote, but it did poorly at the box office.
14.
Burt Kennedy often wrote the episodes he directed, and he served as a producer on Combat.
15.
Burt Kennedy wrote but did not direct the Audie Murphy Western Six Black Horses.
16.
Burt Kennedy returned to features as director with the Western comedy Mail Order Bride with Buddy Ebsen.
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Burt Kennedy followed it with comedy Western The Rounders, starring Glenn Ford and Henry Fonda, which Kennedy wrote and produced.
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Burt Kennedy directed a contemporary film The Money Trap, starring Ford and Rita Hayworth, then returned to Westerns with Return of the Seven, a sequel to The Magnificent Seven with Yul Brynner returning and Robert Fuller replacing Steve McQueen as Vin Tanner.
19.
Burt Kennedy directed The War Wagon with John Wayne and Kirk Douglas and Welcome to Hard Times with Henry Fonda.
20.
Burt Kennedy's story formed the basis of Return of the Gunfighter, though he did not direct it and he did some work on the script of Stay Away, Joe.
21.
Burt Kennedy directed two films with Robert Mitchum, Young Billy Young and The Good Guys and the Bad Guys, then directed Frank Sinatra in another comedy Western Dirty Dingus Magee, co-written by Joseph Heller.
22.
Burt Kennedy directed Richard Crenna in The Devil's Backbone, after which Garner and he tried to repeat the success of Support Your Local Sheriff with Support Your Local Gunfighter.
23.
Burt Kennedy made Hannie Caulder with Raquel Welch and was reunited with John Wayne in The Train Robbers.
24.
Burt Kennedy turned to television for Shootout in a One Dog Town with Crenna, and Sidekicks, the pilot for a TV series based on the film Skin Game.
25.
Burt Kennedy directed a contemporary thriller, All the Kind Strangers.
26.
Burt Kennedy started directing Drum, but was replaced by producer Dino De Laurentiis with Steve Carver during the shoot.
27.
Burt Kennedy directed The Killer Inside Me, based on the Jim Thompson novel.
28.
Burt Kennedy's story provided the basis for Escape from the Dark.
29.
Burt Kennedy returned to television doing episodes of Big Hawaii, How the West Was Won, The Rhinemann Exchange, and Concrete Cowboys.
30.
Burt Kennedy did the TV movies Kate Bliss and the Ticker Tape Kid, The Wild Wild West Revisited, and More Wild Wild West.
31.
Burt Kennedy worked on the script for the Clint Eastwood movie White Hunter Black Heart.
32.
Burt Kennedy died of cancer at home on February 15,2001, in Sherman Oaks, California.
33.
Burt Kennedy was buried at Arlington National Cemetery on March 2,2001.
34.
Burt Kennedy's companion was Nancy Pendleton and he had two daughters.