Posted on 09/12/2010 12:38:36 PM PDT by Borges
Kevin McCarthy, the veteran stage and screen actor best known for his starring role as the panicked doctor who tried to warn the world about the alien "pod people" who were taking over in the 1956 science-fiction suspense classic "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," died Saturday. He was 96.
McCarthy died of natural causes at Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis, Mass., said his daughter Lillah.
During a career that spanned more than 70 years, beginning on stage in New York in the late 1930s, McCarthy played Biff Loman opposite Paul Muni's Willy in the 1949 London production of "Death of a Salesman."
Reprising his role in the 1951 film version opposite Fredric March, he earned a supporting-actor Oscar nomination and won a Golden Globe as most promising male newcomer.
McCarthy had appeared in several other films and had a string of TV anthology-series credits behind him when he was cast as Dr. Miles Bennell in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," director Don Siegel's thriller about an unsuspecting California town whose residents were being replaced by emotionless alien clones grown in oversized seed pods.
In the film's most memorable scene, McCarthy's frantic Bennell runs into traffic, screaming to motorists, "Stop and listen to me. . They're not human. Can't you see? Everyone! They're here already. You're next!"
The low-budget film became an enduring cult classic that was selected for preservation in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry in 1994.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
RIP
ping
RIP, Mr. McCarthy...thanks for scaring the crap out of me when I was much younger...
RIP, Mr McCarthy. The remake didn't even come close to your original.
96. That’s pretty darned good. Still remember him in the middle of the freeway, warning everyone about the “pods!”
RIP
The 70s remake was quite good though. And it didn’t have that awful studio imposed framing device and ending.
RIP
RIP Kevin McCarthy
I remember him playing roles in all kinds of stuff for many years. Condolences to family, friends and fans.
Even in bad movies, he gave memorable performances. RIP
Color was somehow distracting, to me anyway.
This guy worked every day of his life- all over the place; one of those guys you always recognized, but couldn’t remember his name.
Kevin McCarthy at Stars of the Zone Convention, 8/24/02
96 was a good run! RIP.
Excellent actor. Always enjoyed his movies. And his “Invasion Of The Body Snatchers” is the best, truly frightening in black and white. Yesterday’s pod people are today’s hybrids. Don’t know anything about them? Just ask one. ;)
RIP.
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