George Kennedy, Oscar-winning character, dead at 61

George Kennedy, the brawny, Oscar-winning character actor known for playing cops, soldiers and blue-collar authority figures in such films as "Cool Hand Luke," "Airport" and the "Naked Gun" films, has died. He was 91, the CNN reports.

Kennedy died Sunday in Boise, Idaho, said his grandson, Cory Schenkel.

"He passed Sunday morning, due to old age and some health issues," Schenkel said.

The New York-born Kennedy came by his military gravitas honestly; he served in World War II and spent 16 years in the US Army, many of them with Armed Forces Radio. In the 1950s, he was an adviser to Phil Silvers' "Sgt Bilko" show and then started getting acting roles.

Among his early notable films were 1963's "Charade," in which he played one of the criminal gang threatening Audrey Hepburn's character, and 1965's "The Flight of the Phoenix," in which he played a passenger on James Stewart's stranded airplane.

He broke through with 1967's "Cool Hand Luke," in which he played Dragline, a convict who resists, and then becomes friendly with, Paul Newman's Luke character.

"The marvelous thing about that movie was that as my part progresses, I changed from a bad guy to a good guy," Kennedy said in 1978, according to the Hollywood Reporter. "The moguls in Hollywood must have said, ‘Hey, this fellow can do something besides be a bad guy.' "

His performance won him an Oscar for best supporting actor.