1. Douglas Clark Francis Kenney was an American comedy writer of magazine, novels, radio, TV and film, who co-founded the magazine National Lampoon in 1970.
23 Facts About Douglas Kenney
1. 2.
Douglas Kenney went on to write, produce, and perform in the influential comedies Animal House and Caddyshack before his sudden death at the age of 33.
3.
Douglas Clark Francis Kenney was born in West Palm Beach, Florida, to Estelle "Stephanie" and Daniel Harold "Harry" Kenney, both originally from Massachusetts.
4.
Douglas Kenney's family moved to Mentor, Ohio, in the early 1950s, before settling in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland.
5.
Douglas Kenney lived in Chagrin Falls from 1958 to 1964 and attended Gilmour Academy, a Catholic prep high school for boys in nearby Gates Mills, Ohio.
6.
Douglas Kenney frequently collaborated with Henry Beard; the two wrote the short novel Bored of the Rings, which was published in 1969.
7.
Douglas Kenney was one of the originating forces of what became known during the 1970s as the "new wave" of comedy: a dark, irreverent style of humor that Douglas Kenney used as the basis for the magazine.
8.
Douglas Kenney was editor-in-chief from 1970 to 1972, senior editor from 1973 to 1974 and editor from 1975 to 1976.
9.
Douglas Kenney wrote much of the Lampoon's early material, such as "Mrs Agnew's Diary", a regular column purporting to be the diary of Spiro Agnew's wife, chronicling her life as Second Lady with "Spiggy", Richard Nixon, and other famous politicians.
10.
Douglas Kenney threw the manuscript in the trash after Beard reacted to it negatively.
11.
Douglas Kenney had a five-year buyout contract with the Lampoons publisher, Twenty First Century Communications.
12.
Douglas Kenney remained on the staff until 1977, when he left the magazine to co-write the screenplay to National Lampoon's Animal House with Chris Miller and Harold Ramis.
13.
Douglas Kenney had a small role in Animal House as Delta fraternity brother "Stork", with two lines of dialogue.
14.
Douglas Kenney produced and wrote Caddyshack with Brian Doyle-Murray and Harold Ramis.
15.
Douglas Kenney had a small role in Caddyshack as a dinner guest of Al Czervik's.
16.
When Caddyshack opened to negative reviews from critics in July 1980 despite being a box-office success, Douglas Kenney became deeply depressed, although Ramis joked that the film was "a six-million-dollar scholarship to film school".
17.
Chevy Chase and Douglas Kenney went to Maui, Hawaii, in the summer of 1980.
18.
Douglas Kenney had traveled alone to the island of Kauai on August 26,1980.
19.
Douglas Kenney's death was classified as accidental by Kauai police.
20.
The National Lampoon published a tribute to him by Matty Simmons, as well as a cartoon showing a sign reading "Doug Douglas Kenney Slipped Here" next to the edge of a cliff.
21.
Douglas Kenney received a nomination from The Writers Guild of America for his National Lampoon's Animal House screenplay.
22.
The June 1985 issue of National Lampoon, titled "The Doug Douglas Kenney Collection", was dedicated entirely to Douglas Kenney and contained a compilation of all of his contributions.
23.
The book was adapted into the 2018 Netflix feature film A Futile and Stupid Gesture, which stars comedian Will Forte as Douglas Kenney and is narrated by the actor Martin Mull, who plays a fictional 70-year-old version of Douglas Kenney who had survived into old age.