Monday September 13, 2010 @ 3:34am PDTThe stage, screen and television mainstay was one of Hollywood's best known character actors as well as the star of the 1956 cult classic Invasion Of The Body Snatchers. He died on Saturday at a Cape Cod hospital in Massachusetts. He was 96. The chisel-jawed actor appeared in almost 100 films over seven decades (he was nominated for an Oscar as "Biff" in 1951's Death Of A Salesman) and was omnipresent in primetime. He was the brother of writer/critic Mary McCarthy.
Kevin's IMDB page.
COMMENTS:
Another favorite of Joe Dante’s gone…
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-RnsW
While he could play the mastiest of Villians, he was the nicest man you could ever know. I met him at a couple of horror conventions and he couldn’t be sweeter. One of my cherish posessions is a photo we had taken together. The first time I met him I told him that no one can play villians as well as him, to which he replied, “but I’m a very nice guy”. The second time I met him I called him an excellent actor, to that he replied, “let’s do lunch”. He was such a sweet man, and who could forget his perfomnaces in “Invasion of The Body Snatchers, Innerspace, and UHF where his villian recieved the ultimate humiliation. He was such a perfect actor.
A great portrait of the younger actor is in Patricia Bosworth’s biography of Montgomery Clift. In the early New York method days he was one of Clift’s closest friends.
I will always remember him as the evil R.J. Fletcher, villainous head of Channel 8 in Weird Al’s masterpiece “UHF.” In retrospect, I’m impressed they were able to get the star of Body Snatchers and Death of a Salesman in their silly, but enjoyable, movie.
Loved “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” and loved him in it. Bummer, he was a great actor, but he lived a good long life. Rest easy!
Amen
Kevin came in for a few days work on THE ROSE AND THE JACKYL, a TNT movie I produced years ago….He regaled us with stories of “old Hollywood” and his friendships with the greats, and at the same time, was entirely relevant and charming. My Condolences to Lillah and her entire family.
It’s likly he’ll be remembered for just one film…. but it’s a classic
I met Kevin a couple of times at autograph shows and he was just the nicest man. He was stunned when I picked out a photo of him from the 1978 remake of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS. “And you got that from just looking at that?” he asked with such surprise.
“Of course, that’s you!”
He told me that they never paid him a dime for that cameo. He ran out and jumped on the hood of Donald Sutherland’s car, crying out the same lines from the end of the original. “They didn’t even give me $150 for that,” he said.
I thanked him for doing it because it was a wonderful scene that connected the original classic to the remake.
RIP, Kevin.
We just finished celebrating “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” in our summer movie marathon Mad Invasion.
Kevin’s work in that film is monumental. The look on his face after he kisses Becky and realizes true horror and fear is one of the great unforgettable moments in cinema.
Thank you for everything.
Rest in Peace, Kevin.