Actors - Jack Kelly

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	Actors - Jack Kelly

For Jack Kelly, the triple gold medal winning Olympic rower and father of Grace Kelly
, also known as Princess Grace and John B. Kelly, Jr., see John B. Kelly, Sr.

For Jack Kelly, the Olympic rower, Philadelphia councilman, head of the US Olympic Committee, and brother of Grace Kelly
, also known as Princess Grace, see John B. Kelly, Jr.

Jack Kelly (September 16, 1927—November 7, 1992 in Astoria, Queens, New York) was an American film and television actor most noted for the role of Bart Maverick in the TV series Maverick, which ran on ABC from 1957 to 1962. Kelly shared the series, rotating as the lead from week to week, first with James Garner as Bret Maverick (1957-1960) then with Roger Moore as Beau Maverick (1960-1961), and for two episodes with Robert Colbert as Brent Maverick (1961) before becoming the only Maverick in the fifth season.

Maverick

The various anti-heroic Mavericks were well-dressed poker-playing professional gamblers roaming the Old West with the benefit of superb scripts. The series had an enormous cultural impact during a time when there were only three television networks and most cities had only three TV channels to choose from. Kelly came into the show in the eighth episode, and never matched Garner's popularity with viewers and subsequent casting directors, although he did have his enthusiastic admirers; with a deep voice and Barrymoresque profile, Kelly enjoyed an attentive following among many female viewers.

Kings' Row

Kelly had earlier played Robert Cummings's role for one season in a 1955 television series based on the movie Kings' Row, in which future Wagon Train scout Robert Horton played Ronald Reagan's part. Kelly played a young doctor coping with his small town environment.

Other Movies and TV Series

Kelly appeared in a number of movies as well, including Forbidden Planet
(1956) and as a villain in Young Billy Young (1969) with Robert Mitchum. From 1969 to 1971, he hosted the NBC daytime game show "Sale of the Century", but was replaced by Joe Garagiola. Kelly was also briefly a TV series regular in Get Christie Love! (1974) and The Hardy Boys Mysteries (1978).

Red Nightmare

In 1962, Kelly played the lead in Red Nightmare
, also known as The Commies Are Coming, the Commies Are Coming, a Cold War exercise in paranoia narrated by Jack Webb in which Kelly's character wakes up one morning to discover that America has been taken over by Communists.

Brother of Nancy Kelly

Born in the Astoria section of New York City, Jack Kelly came from a prominent acting family. His mother, Nan Kelly, had been a popular stage actress, and his sister Nancy Kelly, whom he strongly resembled in facial structure, was a major movie leading lady in the 1930s, appearing in 36 films between 1926 and 1977. She portrayed Tyrone Power's love interest in the classic Jesse James (1939), also featuring Henry Fonda, and played opposite Spencer Tracy in Stanley and Livingston later that same year. She won a Tony for the play The Bad Seed
, reprised the role for the 1956 movie version, and was consequently nominated for an Academy Award the year before Maverick went into production. Oddly, she never appeared with her brother in his television series, although they looked enough alike that she could only have played his sister. Kelly's sister actually had a much more successful acting career than he did, meaning that Kelly had his innings with a flourishing sibling in both fiction and reality.

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