Edgar Kennedy

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Actor | Director Born April 26, 1890 in Monterey, CA

Veteran film actor Edgar "Slow Burn" Kennedy appeared in approximately 500 motion pictures. He was one of the original Keystone Kops who portrayed a group of incompetent policemen in silent films, and starred in a series of short situational comedies called "The Average Man" for the last 18 years of his life. He is also remembered for a role as a street vendor in the Marx Brothers film "Duck Soup."

Born in Monterey, Calif., in 1890, Kennedy began his career as a boxer and once went 14 rounds with Jack Dempsey. He lost the match, but was not knocked out.

In addition to films, Kennedy appeared in vaudeville and directed such comedians as Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy and Charley Chase. He made yearly personal appearance tours with his wife Patricia, and at times his son Larry and his daughter Colleen.

Kennedy died at the age of 58 of throat cancer in a San Fernando Valley hospital. His Keystone Kops comrades gathered to remember him as a "gentle, happy and humorous man."

— Los Angeles Times Nov. 10, 1948