Arthur Kennedy, 1914-1990

Arthur Kennedy (at the podium) drumming up support for a wrongly accused boy in a way that disgusts Glenn Ford in Trial (1955). Photo courtesy Life magazine

Today marks the birth anniversary of Arthur Kennedy, a veteran supporting actor who, like Thelma Ritter, was nominated several times without ever winning an Oscar. I've recommended his work in Trial before, one of his four Supporting Actor nods. Apparently, it still hasn't been released to DVD, not even to the TCM Vault Collection, which is a real shame. Another of the nominations came in Peyton Place, where he plays the drunken stepfather of Hope Lange. One of Kennedy's earlier roles came as the wrongly accused man that Dana Andrews gets off the hook in Boomerang!, although this didn't earn him attention from the Academy.

Unlike Ritter, Arthur Kennedy did get one Best Actor nomination, for playing a blind World War II veteran in Bright Victory.