Keenan Wynn

Keenan Wynn
Francis Xavier Aloysius James Jeremiah Keenan Wynn (July 27, 1916 – October 14, 1986) was an American character actor. His expressive face was his stock-in-trade; and though he rarely carried the lead role, he had prominent billing in most of his film and television roles.
Early life
Wynn was born on July 27, 1916, in New York City, the son of vaudeville comedian Ed Wynn and his wife, the former Hilda Keenan. He took his stage name from his maternal grandfather, Frank Keenan, one of the first Broadway actors to star in Hollywood. His father was Jewish and his mother was of Irish Catholic background. Ed Wynn encouraged his son to become an actor, and to join The Lambs Club, which he did in 1937.
Career
Theatre and radio
Wynn began his career as a stage actor. He appeared in several plays on Broadway, including Remember the Day (1935), Black Widow (1936), Hitch Your Wagon (1937), The Star Wagon (1938), One for the Money (1939), Two for the Show (1940), and The More the Merrier (1941).
Wynn starred in the radio show The Amazing Mr. Smith on Mutual Broadcasting System April 7 – June 30, 1941. He played the title role, "a carefree young man who runs into trouble galore and becomes an involuntary detective".
Film and television
Wynn appeared in hundreds of films and television series between 1934 and 1986. He was a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player during the 1940s and 1950s. He had a brief role as a belligerent, unsympathetic drunk in the wartime romance The Clock (1945). Arguably his most dynamic performance was a small role in The Hucksters (1948) with Clark Gable. His early postwar credits include The Three Musketeers (1948), playing D'Artagnan's servant; Annie Get Your Gun (1950); Royal Wedding (1951); Kiss Me, Kate (1953); The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956); The Absent-Minded Professor (1961); The Americanization of Emily (1964) and Dr. Strangelove (1964).
The Wynns, father and son, both appeared in the original 1956 Playhouse 90 television production of Rod Serling's Requiem for a Heavyweight. The son was returning the favor: according to radio historian Elizabeth McLeod, Keenan had helped his father overcome professional collapse, a harrowing divorce, and a nervous breakdown to return to work a decade earlier, and now helped convince Serling and producer Martin Manulis that the elder Wynn should play the wistful trainer. Both he and his father also appeared in a subsequent TV drama called The Man in the Funny Suit (1960), which detailed the problems they had experienced while working on that series. In it, the Wynns, Serling, and many of the cast and crew played themselves. Keenan also featured in another Rod Serling production, a Twilight Zone episode entitled, "A World of His Own" (1960) as playwright Gregory West, who uniquely caused series creator Rod Serling to disappear.
On January 18, 1959, Wynn starred in S. J. Perelman's Hollywood satire, "Malice in Wonderland", broadcast on NBC's prestigious Sunday afternoon anthology series Omnibus.
Wynn took a dramatic turn as Yost in the crime drama Point Blank (1967) with Lee Marvin. He had a leading role in the third Beach Party movie, Bikini Beach (1964) as a scheming newspaper publisher who wants to banish the local young people. Later he played Hezakiah in the comedy film The Great Race (1965). He was the voice of the Winter Warlock in Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town (1970) and appeared in several Disney films, including Snowball Express (1972), Herbie Rides Again (1974) and The Shaggy D.A. (1976) (as a villain who learns Wilbur Daniels's secret and uses it against him). He appeared as villainous businessman Alonzo Hawk in three Disney films – The Absent-Minded Professor, Son of Flubber, and Herbie Rides Again.
He appeared in Francis Ford Coppola's musical Finian's Rainbow (1968), Sergio Leone's epic western Once Upon a Time in the West (also 1968), and Robert Altman's Nashville (1975). During this time, his guest television roles included Alias Smith and Jones (1971–1972), Emergency! (1975), Movin' On (1975) and The Bionic Woman (1978). Wynn appeared in ten episodes of TV's Dallas during the 1979–1980 season, playing the role of former Ewing family partner-turned-enemy Digger Barnes. David Wayne, a friend of Wynn's, had played Digger Barnes in 1978 but was unable to continue with the role because of his co-starring role on the CBS series, House Calls, starring Wayne Rogers.
Wynn was initially cast in Superman (1978) to play Perry White (the boss of Clark Kent and Lois Lane at the Daily Planet) in April 1977. By June (production had moved to Pinewood Studios in England), Wynn collapsed from exhaustion and was rushed to a hospital. He was replaced by Jackie Cooper. In 1983, he guest-starred in one of the last episodes of Taxi and Quincy, M.E. In 1984, he starred in the television film Call to Glory, which later became a weekly television series.
Personal life and last years
Wynn was married to former stage actress Eve Lynn Abbott (1914–2004) until their divorce in 1947, whereupon Abbott married actor Van Johnson, one of the couple's closest friends. Abbott contended her marriage to Wynn was a happy one, but that her divorce and remarriage were engineered by MGM studio boss Louis B. Mayer, who refused to renew Wynn's contract unless Abbott divorced him and married Johnson, who was the subject of rumors that he was homosexual. One son, actor and writer Ned Wynn (born Edmond Keenan Wynn), wrote the autobiographical memoir We Will Always Live In Beverly Hills. His other son, Tracy Keenan Wynn, is a screenwriter whose credits include The Longest Yard and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (both 1974). His daughter Hilda was married to Paul Williams. He was an uncle by marriage to the Hudson Brothers. His granddaughter is actress Jessica Keenan Wynn.
In his later years, Wynn undertook a number of philanthropic endeavors and supported several charity groups. He was a long-standing active member of the Westwood Sertoma service club, in West Los Angeles.
Death
During his last years, Wynn suffered from pancreatic cancer, which caused his death on October 14, 1986. His ashes are interred in Glendale's Forest Lawn Memorial Park in The Great Mausoleum, Daffodil Corridor, Columbarium of the Dawn, in a niche alongside his father Ed Wynn, his daughter Emily (February 13, 1960 – November 27, 1980), who died from lupus, and his aunt.
Filmography
Film
Somewhere I'll Find You (1942) as Sergeant Tom Purdy (uncredited)
The War Against Mrs. Hadley (1942) as Voice of Radio Announcer (uncredited)
For Me and My Gal (1942) as Eddie Milton (uncredited)
Northwest Rangers (1942) as 'Slip' O'Mara
Lost Angel (1943) as Packy Roost
See Here, Private Hargrove (1944) as Pvt. Mulvehill
Since You Went Away (1944) as Lt. Solomon
Marriage Is a Private Affair (1944) as Major Bob Wilton
Without Love (1945) as Quentin Ladd
The Clock (1945) as The Drunk
Between Two Women (1945) as Tobey
Ziegfeld Follies (1945) as Caller ('Number Please')
Week-End at the Waldorf (1945) as Oliver Webson
What Next, Corporal Hargrove? (1945) as Pvt. Thomas Mulvehill
Easy to Wed (1946) as Warren Haggerty
The Thrill of Brazil (1946) as Steve Farraugh
No Leave, No Love (1946) as Slinky
The Cockeyed Miracle (1946) as Ben Griggs
The Hucksters (1947) as Buddy Hare
Song of the Thin Man (1947) as Clarence 'Clinker' Krause
B.F.'s Daughter (1948) as Martin Delwyn Ainsley
The Three Musketeers (1948) as Planchet
My Dear Secretary (1948) as Ronnie Hastings
Neptune's Daughter (1949) as Joe Backett
That Midnight Kiss (1949) as Artie Geoffrey Glenson
Annie Get Your Gun (1950) as Charlie Davenport
Love That Brute (1950) as Bugsy Welch
Three Little Words (1950) as Charlie Kope
Royal Wedding (1951) as Irving Klinger / Edgar Klinger
Kind Lady (1951) as Edwards' Butler
Texas Carnival (1951) as Dan Sabinas
Angels in the Outfield (1951) as Fred Bayles
It's a Big Country (1951) as Michael Fisher
Phone Call from a Stranger (1952) as Eddie Hoke
The Belle of New York (1952) as Max Ferris
Skirts Ahoy! (1952) as Himself (uncredited)
Holiday for Sinners (1952) as Joe Piavi
Fearless Fagan (1952) as Sgt. Kellwin – Company J
Desperate Search (1952) as Brandy
Sky Full of Moon (1952) as Al
Battle Circus (1953) as Sergeant Orvil Statt
Code Two (1953) as Police Sgt. Jumbo Culdane
Kiss Me Kate (1953) as Lippy
All the Brothers Were Valiant (1953) as Silva
The Long, Long Trailer (1954) as Policeman
Tennessee Champ (1954) as Willy Wurble
Men of the Fighting Lady (1954) as Lt. Commander Ted Dodson
The Glass Slipper (1955) as Kovin
The Marauders (1955) as Hook
Running Wild (1955) as Ken Osanger
Shack Out on 101 (1955) as George
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956) as Sgt. Caesar Gardella
The Naked Hills (1956) as Sam Wilkins
Johnny Concho (1956) as Barney Clark
The Great Man (1956) as Sid Moore
Joe Butterfly (1957) as Harold Hathaway
The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown (1957) as Dandy
Don't Go Near the Water (1957) as Gordon Ripwell
The Deep Six (1958) as Lt. Commander Mike Edge
Touch of Evil (1958) as Bartender (uncredited)
A Time to Love and a Time to Die (1958) as Reuter
The Perfect Furlough (1958) as Harvey Franklin
That Kind of Woman (1959) as Harry Corwin
A Hole in the Head (1959) as Jerry Marks
The Crowded Sky (1960) as Nick Hyland
The Absent-Minded Professor (1961) as Alonzo P. Hawk
The Joke and the Valley (1961, TV Movie) as Lambert Giles
The Big Bankroll (1961) as Tom Fowler
Il re di Poggioreale (Black City) (1961) as Di Gennaro
The Power and the Glory (1961, TV Movie) as Wine Merchant
Son of Flubber (1963) as Alonzo P. Hawk
The Bay of St Michel (1963) as Nick Rawlings
Man in the Middle (1964) as Lt. Charles Winston
Dr. Strangelove (1964) as Colonel Bat Guano
Honeymoon Hotel (1964) as Mr. Sampson
Stage to Thunder Rock (1964) as Ross Sawyer
The Patsy (1964) as Harry Silver
Bikini Beach (1964) as Harvey Huntington Honeywagon
The Americanization of Emily (1964) as Old Sailor
Nightmare in the Sun (1965) as Junk dealer
The Great Race (1965) as Hezekiah Sturdy
Promise Her Anything (1966) as Angelo Carelli
The Night of the Grizzly (1966) as Jed Curry
Stagecoach (1966) as Luke Plummer
Around the World Under the Sea (1966) as Hank Stahl
Warning Shot (1967) as Sgt. Ed Musso
Welcome to Hard Times (1967) as Zar
The War Wagon (1967) as Wes Fletcher
Point Blank (1967) as Yost
Run Like a Thief (1967) as Willy Gore
Frame Up (1968) as Inspector Donald
The Longest Hunt (1968) as Major Charlie Doneghan
Finian's Rainbow (1968) as Senator Billboard Rawkins
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) as Sheriff – Auctioneer
The Magic Pear Tree (1968, Short) as Marquis (voice)
Mackenna's Gold (1969) as Sanchez
Smith! (1969) as Vince Heber
The Monitors (1969) as The General
80 Steps to Jonah (1969) as Barney Glover
Viva Max! (1969) as General Lacomber
House on Greenapple Road (1970, TV Movie) as Sgt. Charles Wilentz
Loving (1970) as Edward
Five Savage Men (1970) as Pudge Elliott
Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town (1970, TV Movie) as The Winter Warlock (voice)
Assault on the Wayne (1971, TV Movie) as Orville Kelly
Pretty Maids All in a Row (1971) as Poldaski
Cannon (1971) as Eddie
The Man with Icy Eyes (1971) as Harry Davis
Terror in the Sky (1971, TV Movie) as Milton
The Manipulator (1971) as Old Charlie
Panhandle 38 (1972) as Billy Bronson / Kile Richards
Wild in the Sky (1972) as General Harry Gobohare
Assignment: Munich (1972, TV Movie) as George
Cancel My Reservation (1972) as Sheriff 'Houndtooth' Riley
The Mechanic (1972) as Harry McKenna ['Big Harry']
Snowball Express (1972) as Martin Ridgeway
VD Attack Plan (1973, Short) as Contagion Corps Sergeant (narrator)
Hijack! (1973) as Donny McDonald
Herbie Rides Again (1974) as Alonzo P. Hawk
The Internecine Project (1974) as E.J. Farnsworth
The Legend of Earl Durand (1974) as Colonel Nightingale
Hit Lady (1974, TV Movie) as Buddy McCormack
Popcorn (1974, Short) (voice)
Target Risk (1975, TV Movie) as Simon Cusack
He Is My Brother (1975) as Brother Dalton
Nashville (1975) as Mr. Green
The Man Who Would Not Die (1975) as Victor Slidell
The Devil's Rain (1975) as Sheriff Owens
A Woman for All Men (1975) as Walter McCoy
The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case (1976, TV Movie) as Fred Huisache
20 Shades of Pink (1976, TV Movie)
The Quest (1976, TV Movie) as H. H. Small
Jeremiah of Jacob's Neck (1976, TV Movie) as Jeremiah Starbuck
High Velocity (1976) as Mr. Andersen
The Killer Inside Me (1976) as Chester Conway
The Shaggy D.A. (1976) as John Slade
The Quest: The Longest Drive (1976, TV Movie) as Cooler
Mission to Glory: A True Story (1977)
Orca (1977) as Novak
Sex and the Married Woman (1977, TV Movie) as Uncle June
Laserblast (1978) as Colonel Farley
Coach (1978) as Fenton "F. R." Granger
The Bastard (1978) as Johnny Malcolm
Piranha (1978) as Jack
The Lucifer Complex (1978) as U.S. Secretary of Defense / Adolph Hitler?
The Billion Dollar Threat (1979 TV movie) as Ely
The Dark (1979) as Sherman "Sherm" Moss
Hollywood Knight (1979) as Jed
Sunburn (1979) as Mark Elmes
Parts: The Clonus Horror (1979) as Jake Noble
The Glove (1979) as Bill Schwartz
The Treasure Seekers (1979) as Meat Cleaver Stewart
A Touch of the Sun (1979) as General Spelvin
Just Tell Me What You Want (1980) as Seymour Berger
Mom, the Wolfman and Me (1980, TV Movie) as Grandpa Bergman
The Monkey Mission (1981, TV Movie) as Stump Harris
A Piano for Mrs. Cimino (1982, TV Movie) as Barney Fellman
The Capture of Grizzly Adams (1982, TV Movie) as Bert Woolman
The Last Unicorn (1982) as Captain Cully / Harpy (voice)
Best Friends (1982) as Tom Babson
Hysterical (1983) as Fisherman
Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1983, TV Movie) as Piers Castillian
Wavelength (1983) as Dan
Prime Risk (1985) as Dr. Lasser
Code of Vengeance (1985, TV Movie) as Willis
Mirrors (1985, TV Movie) as Reverend Dahlstrom
Zoo Ship (1985) (voice)
Black Moon Rising (1986) as Iron John
Hyper Sapien: People from Another Star (1986) as Grandpa (final film role)
Television
Alfred Hitchcock Presents (TV series) (1958) (Season 3 Episode 35: "Dip in the Pool") as William Botibol
Wagon Train – Episode: "The Luke O'Malley Story" (1958) as Luke O'Malley
The Untouchables (1959–1961) as Augie 'The Banker' Ciamino / Joe Fuselli
The Twilight Zone – Episode: "A World of His Own" (1960) as Gregory West
The Troubleshooters (1959–1960) as Kodiak
Alfred Hitchcock Presents (TV series) (1961) (Season 6 Episode 17: "The Last Escape") as Joe Ferlini
Rawhide – Episode: "Incident at Cactus Wells" (1962) as Simon Royce
Combat! – Episode: "The Prisoner" (1962) as Colonel Clyde
Ben Casey – Episode: "Behold a Pale Horse" (1962) as O.J. Stanley
Death Valley Days – Episode: "Grass Man" (1962) as Josh Tavers
Bonanza – Episode: "Alias Joe Cartwright" (1964) as Sergeant O'Rourke
Combat! – Episode: "The Flying Machine" (1966) as Lt. Brannagan
The Wild Wild West – Episode: "The Night of the Freebooters" (1966) as Thorwald Wolfe
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. – Episode: "Show Me the Way to Go Home" (1966) as Harry Purcell
Then Came Bronson – Episode: "The Old Motorcycle Fiasco" (1969) as Alex
Lancer – Episode: "Blue Skies for Willie Sharpe" (1970) as Kansas Bill Sharpe
Alias Smith and Jones (1971) as Artie Gorman / Horace Wingate / Charlie Utley
Mod Squad – Episode: "And a Little Child Shall Bleed Them" (1971) as Luther
Hawaii Five-O – Episode: "Journey Out of Limbo" (1972) as Hummel
Cannon – Episode: "The Island Caper" (1972) as Matt Dixon
Alias Smith and Jones – Episode: "What Happened at the XST?" (1972) as Artie Gorman
McMillan & Wife – Episode: "The Devil You Say" (1973) as Professor Zagmeyer
Hec Ramsey – Episode: "A Hard Road to Vengeance" (1973) as Bullard
The New Perry Mason – Episode: "The Case of the Telltale Trunk" (1973) as Victor Harding
The Girl With Something Extra – Episode: "Guess Who's Feeding the Pigeons" (1974) as Victor Lucas
Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974–1975) as Captain Joe 'Mad Dog' Siska
Movin' On – Episode: "The Elephant Story" (1975) as Barnaby
Emergency! – Episode: "Back-Up" (1975) as Wild Bill
The Bob Newhart Show – Episode: "What's It All About, Albert?" (1975) as Dr. Albert
The Bionic Woman – Episode: "Rancho Outcast" (1978) as Gustave
Dallas – 10 episodes (1979–1980) as Digger Barnes
The Littlest Hobo - Episode: "The Balloonist" (1980) as Gus Appleton (uncredited)
Fantasy Island – Episode: "Mr. Nobody/La Liberatora" (1981) as Willie the promoter
One Day at a Time – Episode: "Small Wonder II (1981) as Randolph Ericson
The Greatest American Hero – Episode: "Good Samaritan" (1982) as Ira Hagert
Hardcastle and McCormick – Episode: "Just Another Round of That Old Song" (1983) as Henry Willard
Quincy, M.E. – Episode: "Whatever Happened to Morris Perlmutter?" (1983) as Morris Perlmutter
Manimal – Episode: "Scrimshaw" (1983) as Clancy Sea Dog Morgan
Taxi – Episode: "Tony's Baby" (1983) as Leo
Tales from the Darkside – Episode: "I'll Give You a Million" (1984) as Duncan
Highway to Heaven – Episode: "Popcorn, Peanuts and CrackerJacks" (1985) as Doc Brisby
Call to Glory (1984–1985) as Carl Sarnac
References
Notes
External links
1916 births
1986 deaths
20th-century American male actors
American male comedy actors
American male film actors
American male stage actors
American male television actors
American male voice actors
American people of Czech-Jewish descent
American people of Irish descent
American people of Ottoman-Jewish descent
American people of Romanian-Jewish descent
Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)
Deaths from cancer in California
Deaths from pancreatic cancer
Male Spaghetti Western actors
Male Western (genre) film actors
Male actors from Los Angeles
Male actors from New York City
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract players
Members of The Lambs Club