Kenneth McMillan

Actor

Birthday July 2, 1932

Birth Sign Cancer

Birthplace Brooklyn, New York, U.S.

DEATH DATE 1989, Santa Monica, California, U.S. (57 years old)

Nationality United States

Height 5' 6½" (1.69 m)

#25028 Most Popular

1932

Kenneth McMillan (July 2, 1932 – January 8, 1989) was an American actor.

McMillan was usually cast as gruff, hostile and unfriendly characters due to his rough image.

However, he was sometimes cast in some lighter comic roles that highlighted his gentler side.

1953

Among the TV shows McMillan did guest spots on are Dark Shadows, Ryan's Hope, as a 53rd precinct lieutenant on Kojak, Starsky & Hutch, The Rockford Files, Moonlighting, Lou Grant, Magnum, P.I. and Murder, She Wrote.

Outside of his film and TV credits, McMillan also frequently performed on stage at the New York Shakespeare Festival.

He acted in the original Broadway productions of Streamers and American Buffalo.

He won an Obie for his performance in the Off-Broadway play Weekends Like Other People.

McMillan died of liver disease at age 56.

1969

He was married to Kathryn McDonald (20 June 1969 – 8 January 1989) (his death) with whom he had one child, actress Alison McMillan.

McMillan made his film debut at age 41 with a small role in Sidney Lumet's police drama Serpico.

1977

He was perhaps best known as Jack Doyle in Rhoda (1977–1978), and as Baron Vladimir Harkonnen in David Lynch's Dune.

McMillan was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Margaret and Harry McMillan, a truck driver.

He attended Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts.

Prior to becoming an actor, McMillan was employed at Gimbels Department Store first as a salesman, then as a section manager, and then a floor superintendent managing three floors.

At age 30, McMillan decided to pursue an acting career, and took acting lessons from Uta Hagen and Irene Dailey.

McMillan had a recurring role in 1977–78 as Valerie Harper's irate boss Jack Doyle on the TV sitcom Rhoda.

1979

The actor played a borough commander in The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, but often was cast as characters such as a cowardly small town sheriff in Tobe Hooper's 1979 TV mini-series Salem's Lot, a similar law enforcement officer in the 1987 Burt Reynolds film Malone, William Hurt's bitter paraplegic father in Eyewitness, a wily safe cracker in The Pope of Greenwich Village, and a racist fire chief in Ragtime who is memorably told off by the New York City police commissioner, played by James Cagney.

1982

Yet he did sometimes get cast opposite the villain, playing Robert Duvall's detective partner in True Confessions, a judge who must rule whether Richard Dreyfuss has the right to die in Whose Life Is It Anyway?, as well as a lead detective investigating a serial killer in the 1982 film The Clairvoyant.

McMillan was also adept at comedy, giving performances as a baseball club manager in Blue Skies Again, Meg Ryan's corrupt security guard captain dad in Armed and Dangerous and a dotty senile veterinarian in Three Fugitives.

1985

In 1985, he portrayed New York City's newly appointed police commissioner in the short-lived television crime drama Our Family Honor.

He portrayed the grotesquely obese and gleefully psychotic Baron Vladimir Harkonnen in Dune, the pathetic drunken pop of Aidan Quinn in Reckless and as Cressner, a sleazy high roller gambler in "The Ledge," a segment of the horror anthology film Cat's Eye.