Ken Jenkins is an American musician and actor of cinema, theater, television, best known for the role of the insensitive, selfish and vile chief physician Bob Kelso in the popular comedy-drama television series "Clinic" about the life and work of young doctors.
Biography
The actor was born on August 28, 1940 in the city of Dayton (Ohio). While studying at Wilbur Wright High School, Jenkins discovered his love of the theater, he began to actively participate in various school theater productions based on works by Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, George Bernard Shaw and William Shakespeare. In his youth, Ken Jenkins began acting studies at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, near his hometown, and began performing on Broadway and in a regional theater throughout his student years.
Carier start
In the late sixties, he co-founded the prestigious non-profit acting theater of performing arts in Louisville and worked for three years as deputy art director. This institution has become famous for becoming a breeding ground for some of America's best playwrights, such as Beth Henley and Marsha Norman, and has also nurtured several of the most famous plays. Over the next nearly thirty years, Ken Jenkins performed an average of ten plays a year, working as an actor, writer, or director. He portrayed Hamlet and Cyrano and played in other classical works. However, one of his favorite works on stage was the role in the 1985 musical “Big River,” in which he played with his son Daniel.
Movies with Ken Jenkins
Since his debut in 1974 in the series Great Performances, Jenkins has appeared on television many times in the most versatile roles: the sheriff in the crime series Equalizer, the pilot in the sitcom Amen, the captain in the soap opera Dallas, and the curious doctor Paul Stubbs in the adventure television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, Lars Derstin in the television drama Thirty-Something, Mike Sloan Sr., for two seasons, in the television drama In the Rear, Deputy Chief Karras in The X-Files ", Pastor Neal in the youth series" Beve Is Hills, 90210 "Chick, a typical representative of the South, the father of the main character (Courteney Cox) in the television series" Cougar Town, "Elder Sam in the adventure series" Lemony Snicket: 33 accident. "
Ken has also starred in several television films, such as The Impact for the Stands (Hilton Berberry), The Biography of Cuba Libre, The Shattered Dreams (Hal Witt), The Thirst Thriller (Lou Wolford), and the historical drama To the very end ”(Congressman Howard Smith).
On the big screen, Ken Jenkins’s filmography includes James Cameron's science-fiction film "The Abyss", the comedy "Air America" about the adventures of young pilots during the Vietnam War. He starred in the thriller “Ordered to Destroy”, the drama “The Last Dance”, the psycho horror, a remake of the classic thriller of the same name Alfred Hitchcock, the crime film “Gone in 60 Seconds,” in which a car thief must steal fifty cars in one night. Appeared in the drama “I Am Sam,” about how a mentally retarded man fights for custody of his seven-year-old daughter, the thriller “The Price of Fear,” the drama “Welcome to Paradise.”
Jenkins sings and plays great acoustic guitar, and he proves this in a couple of episodes of the series “Clinic”. He played the owner of the bar in the music video of The Blanks, performing songs without musical accompaniment.
Personal life
Jenkins was married twice, in 1958, his first wife was actress Joan Patchen. In the marriage, three sons were born Matthew, Joshua and Daniel Jenkins, who chose the profession of parents, appearing in a number of television shows, as well as in many plays and musicals on Broadway. Joan Ken divorced after eleven years of marriage. In 2000, she passed away.
In 1970, Ken Jenkins married actress and writer Catherine Houghton, who is the niece of the brilliant, Oscar-winning Catherine Hepburn, and even starred with her in several films. Jenkins is an avid carpenter and an experienced trainer, and his real personality is the opposite of the character of Bob Kelso, today his most recognizable hero, whom he plays in the Clinic. His colleagues and partners on the set, he was described as "the cutest guy in the world."