Kevin McCarthy

Whenever I see Kevin McCarthy in a movie I just want to punch him in the face. Chances are you do too. It's not his fault, really. I hold no personal grudge against the man. I've never even met him. But whenever I see him in a movie I associate him with the stereotypically evil, heartless, greedy, corporate leaders in other movies he's played in, and I want to start slapping his movie personas and just never stop.

You still don't know who I'm talking about? Allow me to cite a few titles.

I was first introduced to McCarthy's heartless bastard character in 1987's Innerspace. He played Victor Scrimshaw, the man who wanted to steal the shrinking/enlarging chips for his own company. After his plans to murder Martin Short's Jack Putter character failed, he miniaturized Mr. Iago, injected him into Jack, and ordered him to kill Tuck Pendleton. Then Iago would be reenlarged, bursting out of the hapless Jack. All in the name of profit.

I next encountered Kevin McCarthy's heartless bastard character in 1989's UHF where he played Channel 8 president R.J. Fletcher. This was McCarthy's most memorable bastard role. His character fired Stanley Spadowski for a mishap that wasn't the poor janitor's fault, attempted to derail Channel U62's rise to the top through fraud, kidnappings, and dealings with bookies, and was, in general, a complete jackass.

The third time's the charm, so when McCarthy appeared in 1992's The Distinguished Gentleman as a energy business executive from a group out to bribe congressmen, filter soft money, and kill an investigation into the formation of cancer clusters in relation to his power lines, he was cemented in my mind as the heartless corporate bastard in every movie I'd seen.

For example, up until a few minutes ago I was positive Kevin McCarthy played Dick Jones of Omni Consumer Products in Robocop. In reading up on his movie roles I was shocked to find that Dick Jones was played by Ronny Cox. I was certain McCarthy had played the character, and Dick Jones has got to be one of Hollywood's most memorable heartless corporate bastards. So connected in my mind is "heartless bastard" with "Kevin McCarthy movie character".

So, in the end, I don't wish any ill-will towards Kevin McCarthy. He's probably a pretty nice guy in real life and I'm sure he's done other movies where he doesn't play a bastard. But if I ever meet one of his movie characters, there's gonna be trouble.

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Alright, so apparently he's played the hero in quite a few films. I've never seen any of those however, so KC is still linked to the "heartless bastard" character in my mind.

American actor (1914-2010). He was born in Seattle, Washington, and both of his parents died in the 1918 flu epidemic. He and his siblings spent five miserable years with relatives in Minneapolis before the children were separated. Kevin graduated from Campion High School in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin and attended the University of Minnesota, where he discovered his love of acting. 

During his service in the United States Army Air Force during World War II, he appeared in a number of training films and was later a founding member of the Actors Studio. 

He had his debut on film in the 1951 adaptation of "Death of a Salesman," where he played Biff Loman -- he won the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year, which is a nice way to start out. 

McCarthy is still best known for playing the lead role of Dr. Miles Bennell in the 1956 sci-fi classic "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." From that point on, he worked fairly steadily in films, television, theater, and even video games -- rarely as the star, sometimes as a villain, sometimes as a supporting character. But even as a character actor, he was a recognizable and often beloved presence for fans of his work. 

McCarthy worked almost up to his death of pneumonia on September 11, 2010 at Cape Cod Hospital in Massachusetts. 

McCarthy's films included "Nightmare," "Diamond Safari," "The Misfits," "A Gathering of Eagles," "A Big Hand for the Little Lady," "Hotel," "The Hell with Heroes," "Ace High," "Piranha," "The Howling," "Twilight Zone: The Movie," "Innerspace," "UHF," "Eve of Destruction," "The Distinguished Gentleman," "Matinee," "Just Cause," "Looney Tunes: Back in Action," and "Slipstream."