Kenneth E. Lynch (July 15, 1910 – February 13, 1990) was an American radio, film, and television actor with more than 180 credits to his name. He was generally known for portraying law enforcement officers and detectives. He may have been best known for his starring role as "the Lieutenant" on Dumont detective series The Plainclothesman (1949–1954), on which his face was never seen, and for his co-starring role as Sergeant Grover on McCloud.[1]
Kenneth Englehart Lynch was born on July 15, 1910, in Albany, New York, the only child of Bertha Dietzel and Charles William Lynch. His father was a native of Woburn, Massachusetts, who started his career as a coffee salesman, and then became a creamery owner in Troy, New York. His mother was from Yonkers, New York, a third generation German-American. The middle name, Englehart, a mark of his German ancestry, was his maternal grandmother's maiden name.
Career
Lynch made his acting career on radio series. In 1940, on The Bishop and the Gargoyle, he played the Gargoyle, an ex-convict who helped the Bishop solve crimes.[2] From 1942 to 1946, he was the voice of Tank Tanker, the mechanic, who aides the title character in Hop Harrigan.[2]: 147
He had roles on three daytime radio soap operas. Lynch played Victor on Backstage Wife,[2]: 28 Buck on Portia Faces Life,[2]: 243 and Slim Stark on A Woman of America.[2]: 332
In 1950, Lynch starred in One Thousand Dollars Reward, a rare crime drama, where after the crime play had ended, the host would place a telephone call to a random listener, who would then try to solve the mystery. Lynch also appeared on the radio shows The Falcon, 21st Precinct, and Gunsmoke.[3] Later, in 1952, he played both Christopher Gard and Steve Lacey in Cafe Istanbul on CBS radio.[4]
Even though Lynch still had a very successful career as an actor by the 1970s, he began looking for another, more steady source of income. He explained in a 1975 newspaper interview: "In acting you just can't predict the jobs that will come along. If you could, you could budget."[9] With such income uncertainty in mind as he grew older, Lynch bought a flower shop in North Hollywood a "few years" before the noted interview. He began studying floriculture, taking courses in the art of floral arranging and design, and then providing flowers for local weddings, receptions, and other events. According to Lynch, his many years of experience performing on decorated sets for movies and television series proved to be a benefit to him in his new business. "Actually," he observed, "servicing a wedding is like ordering flowers for a studio set".[9]
^Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh, The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946 – Present (Seventh Edition), Ballantine Books, 1999, page 262.
^Alvin H. Merrill, More Theatre III: Stage to Screen to Television, page 160, 2008, Scarecrow Press