Biography for
Kevin McCarthy (I) More at IMDbPro »

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Handsome, chiseled-jaw character actor Kevin McCarthy has appeared in nearly 100 movies in a career that has spanned seven decades. He also had some starring roles, most notably the horror cult classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers. He played the disillusioned son, Biff, in the 1951 screen adaptation of Arthur Miller's classic Death of a Salesman for which he was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar and won the Golden Globe Award for most promising newcomer (male).

He is the brother of the late author Mary McCarthy and distant cousin to former U.S. senator and presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy.

McCarthy was orphaned at the age of four when both his parents died in the great flu epidemic of 1918. He was raised by his father's parents in Minneapolis, Minnesota and later by an uncle and aunt. He graduated from Campion Jesuit High School in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin in 1932. He attended the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, Washington, DC in 1933, intending to enter into the diplomatic field. He also attended the University of Minnesota Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1936 and the Actors Studio New York, New York.

He had roles in two short-lived TV series: The Survivors with Lana Turner; and Flamingo Road as Claude Weldon, father of the Morgan Fairchild character.

The stage-trained McCarthy frequently appeared on Broadway, as Jerry in "Two for the Seesaw" (1959) and Van Ackerman in "Advise and Consent" (1960). He also played President Harry S Truman in the one-man show "Give 'Em Hell, Harry!".

McCarthy has showed no signs of retiring. (June 2007) McCarthy is acting in the film, Ghastly Love of Johnny X, playing the role of the Grand Inquisitor, at age 93.

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Trivia

Brother of writer Mary McCarthy

Was close friend of Montgomery Clift

Is a cousin of former U.S. senator and presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy.

He has performed his one-man show "Give Em Hell, Harry" (as Harry S. Truman) for over 20 years, and has played the role in every state but Alaska and South Dakota. In addition, he won an Obie award for playing President Truman in another play, "Harry Outside", in 1975.

Between 1974 and 1980, he appeared in 25 episodes of the "CBS Radio Mystery Theater."

Besides reprising his "Twilight Zone" personnae in the 1980s, he is also noted for his numerous Twix candy bar commercials of that decade.

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