'Bodysnatchers' star Kevin McCarthy dies age 96

BBC News ^ | 13th September 2010 | BBC News

[the scotsman]

'US actor Kevin McCarthy, best-known for his role in the 1956 film Invasion of the Body Snatchers, has died aged 96.

The veteran character actor died of pneumonia at Cape Cod Hospital in Massachusetts, the Washington Post reported.

McCarthy appeared in more than 50 films and received an Oscar nomination for his role in 1951's Death of a Salesman.

But he is best remembered as the doctor trying to save his friends from alien "pod people" in the sci-fi classic.'

[Bookwoman]

RIP. He was also the bad guy in Weird Al’s movie, UHF...

[Sparky1776]

McCarthy died in 1956 or shortly thereafter...what died last week was a pod.

May he rest in peace!

[mono]

Did he do the original black and white Twilight Zone tv episode about the guy who saw the little demon on the plane wing that was remade in the later color feature film? He had a role in a different part of that film. Also, had a bit part at the end of the remake of Invasion. A good old school actor.

[bill1952]

Not that I am aware but he did appear in the Twilight Zone movie of 83.

William Shattner starred in the episode that you mention.

[Bringbackthedraft]

But he is best remembered as the doctor trying to save his friends from alien “pod people” in the sci-fi classic.’ ........................................... Yup, and it is still the best Body Snatchers of the bunch.

[StormEye]

"Did he do the original black and white Twilight Zone tv episode about the guy who saw the little demon on the plane wing that was remade in the later color feature film? He had a role in a different part of that film. Also, had a bit part at the end of the ..."

He wasn't in that episode. But he was in another episode where he played a history professor who was over two thousand years old. He was found out by someone who saw him in an old Civil War photo of a group of Union officers. I feel this was one of the better Twilight Zone episodes. Very weird.

[knarf]

Kevin McCarthy

[native texan]

My husband and I were newly weds and just out of college. Our summer job after graduation...waiting on our teaching jobs to start...was working at a boys summer baseball camp in Arkansas. One night, this was in 1960, the movie of the evening was this movie...OMG, those little boys were crying with nightmares all night long! All of us councilors were up all night.

[laweeks]

One of the squarest jaws ever in Hollywood . . . a good actor.

[pappyone]

As a kid, Invasion of the Body Snatchers scared the "he double hockey sticks" out of me.

[Category Four]

In UHF, he delivered probably some of the most telling lines about the MSM's attitude toward We the People:

This community means about as much to me as a festering bowl of dog snot! If you took their combined intelligence and multiplied it by a hundred, you might have enough to tie their shoe. But there is one good thing about broadcasting to a town full of mindless sheep -- I always know I've got them exactly where I want them.

[goat granny]

The body snatcher movie of the 50’s was one of the scariest movies I saw as a kid....without all the gore and special effects of today....RIP but hope I don’t live to be 96.