Kenne Duncan - B-Western Bad Guy

The 'brains' and 'action' heavies who had meaty roles and lots of dialog ... and the players who were fathers, ranch owners, lawman, mayors, judges, lawyers, storekeepers, newspaper editors, wardens, etc.

Kenne Duncan

(Kenne is pronounced "Kenny")

Real name: Kenneth Duncan MacLachlan

1902 - 1972

Duncan started in films during the early 1930s, but found his most enduring work as a villain and supporting player in serials and westerns. Duncan labored for most of the B film studios and production outfits.

One of his meatier roles was as 'The Mesa Kid' who butts heads with Tim McCoy (as 'Trigger' Tim Rand) in FRONTIER CRUSADER (PRC, 1940). About halfway through the flick, McCoy and Duncan have a gunfight in the local watering palace ... shots are fired ... Duncan walks out through the swinging saloon doors and mounts his cayuse ... then slowly falls off the hoss, dead from McCoy's bullets.

However, Duncan's most important work - and most remembered - occurred from 1937 - 1950 when he appeared in about 120 films for Republic Pictures, and most were westerns and serials. He was under contract(s) to Republic from July, 1943 through July, 1946, and that seems to be his most prolific film appearance period (since they could use him as much as they wanted while he was under that contract and receiving a regular paycheck).

The rest of his screen work appears to be either freelancing/day-at-a-time (and being paid for a day or two of work) or a picture commitment arrangement (where he would work for one or more days, or in the case of a serial, for a week or more). Les Adams has Duncan pegged in about 225 films, of which 157 are westerns and 22 are serials.

As the B western and serial productions began to fade, Duncan migrated to TV work in shows such as WILD BILL HICKOK. Somehow he became associated with the notorious schlock director Ed Wood, Jr. (who brought us PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE and other yuk films), and wound up starring in two of Wood's anemic creations, THE SINISTER URGE (1961) and NIGHT OF THE GHOULS (1959). Duncan also did personal appearances and tours doing his trick shootin'.

A talented performer who added much to the B movie genre, Duncan passed away on February 7, 1972. In September, 1999, Bob Siler sent me an e-mail noting that Duncan's ashes are in the Garden Of Devotion, Grand View cemetery, Glendale, California.

Some reports mention that Duncan died of a heart ailment, but I found some material from the 1970s that mentioned barbituate overdose. In Bob Malcomson's Those Enduring Matinee Idols (TEMI), a W. T. 'Bill' Stewart had written in with some necrology info on several serial performers and noted that Duncan's death certificate read 'acute barbituate intoxication'. For those of you with copies of TEMI, Stewart's note is in TEMI, Chapter 16, April-May 1972, Volume 2 - Number 6, Page 231. The Ed Wood website link at the end of the Duncan section includes some comments from producer/director Ronnie Ashcroft (THE ASTOUNDING SHE MONSTER), and mentions that Duncan's death was a suicide. However, some message board postings on the Serial Squadron website mentioned that the cause of death was 'stroke', although Duncan had taken a significant amount of alcohol and barbituates.

In March, 2000, thanks to Boyd Magers, I was able to get more info from Dale Berry, who was a close friend of Kenne Duncan and worked with him during his personal appearances. Dale said that Duncan was a heavy beer drinker, and was on prescribed medications following a stroke about a year before he died. Ed Wood was the one who called him in the middle of the night to say Kenne had died at home.

In March, 2001, got an e-mail from Bobby Copeland with the following info: "regarding Kenne Duncan's death, I have a copy of his death certificate. He died as a result of a barbiturate overdose, and his death was ruled a suicide."

Go to the In Search Of ... page on the Old Corral, and then click the link for the California Death Records database. You'll find a record for Kenne Duncan, birthplace and date of Canada and 2/17/1902, and he passed away on 2/7/1972.

Above are Kenne Duncan vs. Wild Bill Elliott in a lobby card from CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH (Republic, 1946), one of the best of the Red Ryder adventures.

(Courtesy of Dale Berry)

Above, a handbill hawking the live show along with a couple of films at George West, Texas (near Houston) on April 26, 1947. Note the admission prices! BLONDIE'S HOLIDAY (Columbia, 1947) was a new film but the second half of the bill, PANAMINT'S BAD MAN with Smith Ballew, was originally released by 20th Century Fox in 1938.

(Courtesy of Dale Berry)

Above, Duncan, Smiley Burnette and Dale Berry. Dale recalls that this photo was taken around 1952 while all three were performing at the Indiana State Fair in Indianapolis. Other performers at the Fair were the Lennon Sisters (from Lawrence Welk TV show); The Rin Tin Tin TV troupe including Jim Brown, Lee Aaker, Rinty and stuntman Doyle Brooks; Leon McAuliffe and the Cimarron Boys provided the music.

Larry Blanks recalls seeing a performance with Kenne Duncan:

"Growing up in Chattanooga, TN, I hardly every missed a B-Western movie on Saturday. We had five theaters on Market street and one theater on Broad. I would start out in the morning and 'work' my way to most all of them, or at least as far as my dollar would take me. After all, it only cost ten cents to see the movie, ten cents for popcorn and ten cents for a coke. Then I had to eat lunch at the Krystal which was twelve cents for a hamburger and another dime for chocolate milk. It took some creative accounting to make that dollar last!

Anyway, each year we had the Hamilton County Fair and there was usually a cowboy star in a booth set up by the fire eaters, or fat lady or 'Freaks of Nature' displays. Around 1951 or so, I must have been about 8 years old, my mother took me to the fair. We walked into the tent show at the last minute to catch the start of the act. I was real excited but upset because we were so late and we probably wouldn't get to sit up close.

As we paid the money and entered the tent through the curtain, a cowboy jumped out from behind the side of the tent and yelled, "stick 'um up!". It was Kenne Duncan and I recognized him right away as one of the bad guys I would usually boo. But, he put his arm around my shoulder and escorted my mom and I up to the front row of the tent, set us down and jumped up on the stage to begin. After the show, he autographed a photo and brought it down to me.

From that point on, I knew that even though he played a bad guy, he was a good guy at heart. I never forgot him or that night. The only problem is, neither my mom nor I know what happened to the photo. It stayed under the glass top of my dresser for years, but just disappeared."

Interestingly, there are advertisements for two half hour Ed Wood films on videotape, including one on Kenne Duncan's 'trick shootin' expertise'. Following is a synopsis on these films which I picked up via the AltaVista search engine:

CROSSROAD AVENGER and TRICK SHOOTING WITH KENNE DUNCAN
Tom Keene, Lyle Talbot, Tom Tyler. Keene plays the hero in this typical shoot 'em up western. Ed wrote and produced this half-hour TV pilot. Shot in color. Also included is a short subject featuring famed western star Kenne Duncan's amazing ability as a trick shooter. This color oddity was produced and directed by Ed, and shot in the early '60s. Both items were film-chained from 16mm.

(Courtesy of Dale Berry)

Above, Duncan and Dale Berry posing at Kenne's trick-shootin' rig during the '52 Indiana State Fair at Indianapolis. Note that Remington Arms was the sponsor. Also check Duncan's billing on the sign --- "the Notorious Movie and Tele-Villain".

Above from L-to-R are William Haade, Bud Geary, Wild Bill Elliott as Red Ryder, and on the far right is Kenne Duncan.