Cy Kendall

Born in St. Louis in 1898, rotund Cyrus 'Cy' Kendall became a jack-of-all-trades doing California and Broadway plays, radio shows, a variety of film roles, and early TV ... and he was a frequent performer at the Pasadena Playhouse.

World War I draft registration and early census records have Kendall working as a department store/dry goods clerk. He and Margaret Watson tied the knot in 1919, had several children, and were together through Kendall's death in 1953. Cy and family were long time residents of Pasadena, California.

His movie credits begin circa 1935 and amount to about 120 films, including approximately 20 westerns and a half dozen serials. He has 17 film credits at Republic Pictures for the period 1935 - 1946, and about a third of those are westerns and serials.

In westerns, Kendall generally wore a vest and suit, chewed on a cigar, and did his best as the conniving, scheming brains heavy - and his roles were that of a land-grabber, carpetbagger, crooked lawyer or slippery politician. Doing bits and minor supporting roles in other films, Kendall was often a bartender or plain clothes cop / detective. Some of my favorite Kendall movie appearances are:

he has good roles in two John Wayne oaters, THE LONELY TRAIL and KING OF THE PECOS (both Republic, 1936).
with assistance from nervous Ernie Adams and gunman Paul Fix, Kendall was the crooked assayer out to steal a goldmine in one of Tim Holt's best, THE FARGO KID (RKO, 1940).
he was 'Captain White', sadistic boss of prison guards, in MEN WITHOUT SOULS (Columbia, 1940), an early film for Glenn Ford.
he was 'Monroe' in THE GREEN HORNET (Universal, 1940) cliffhanger.
Cy was the circus owner in the last of MGM's Tarzan films, TARZAN'S NEW YORK ADVENTURE (MGM, 1942).
he was crooked "Honest John" Travers versus the Trail Blazers (Hoot Gibson, Bob Steele, Chief Thunder Cloud) in OUTLAW TRAIL (Monogram, 1944).

(From Old Corral collection)

Left to right are Cy Kendall, singin' cowboy Dick Foran and Harry Woods in a lobby card from Foran's LAND BEYOND THE LAW (Warners, 1937).

Special thanks to the Pasadena Playhouse for the following information:

Cy Kendall was active at the Playhouse. He appeared in 16 plays over a period from 1920 to 1949. He was not a founder (of the fabled Eighteen Actors Inc. group), but he was around close to the beginning. Of the 16 plays done by the Eighteen Actors, Kendall appeared in three of them.

The only bio material appeared in a 1941 program: "He was Charlie Chan of the airwaves. ONE MANS' FAMILY, LUX RADIO THEATRE and THE SILVER THEATRE are his radio credits, but in films he has appeared for five years and prior to that the stage was his major interest. Fifty plays on the Pacific Coast, New York production of Around the Corner augment his long theatrical credit list. Hollywood Holiday, Bunty Pulls the Strings, The Dybbuk (all Pasadena Playhouse productions) are counted among the plays on the Kendall score."

The Handbook of Old-Time Radio, A Comprehensive Guide to Golden Age Radio Listening and Collecting by Jon D. Swartz and Robert C. Reinehr (Scarecrow Press, 1993) and On the Air, The Encyclopedia of Old Time Radio by John Dunning (Oxford Press, 1998), include the following radio show credits for Kendall:

played Judge Carter in the short-lived THE REMARKABLE MISS TUTTLE (NBC, 1942).
was in the West coast only soap opera AUNT MARY (NBC 1942-1951).
during the early NBC run of BIG TOWN (1937-1942), Kendall is listed as portraying "various political grafters".
played Captain Taffy the Pirate and the Indian Chief in THE CINNAMON BEAR (1937), a syndicated Christmas show.
played Dr. Fred Thompson, the friend and romantic rival of Henry Barbour on ONE MAN'S FAMILY (NBC, 1932-1950).
played Captain Tracy in the syndicated TARZAN OF THE APES radio chapterplay that ran in 1932 and starred Jim Pierce and his wife Joan Burroughs.
played Atam Thome and Wang-Tai in the 1934-1936 syndicated run of additional Tarzan radio serials.

Kendall was briefly in the running to take over the Charlie Chan film role after the death of Warner Oland (but Sidney Toler got the job). That possibility was mentioned in the November, 1938 issue of Radio Mirror magazine:

"Cy Kendall, who plays Charlie Chan in the radio series based on this character, is mentioned as a possible successor to the late Warner Oland in 20th Fox films."

I do know that Kendall also appeared on the LUX RADIO THEATER, as I have a tape somewhere of him in a show with Humphrey Bogart. Got an e-mail from Jeff Wells in September, 2002 with further details on Kendall's LUX radio work which are referenced in the book Lux Presents Hollywood - A Show-by-Show History of the Lux Radio Theatre and the Lux Video Theatre, 1934-1957, by Connie Billips and Arthur Pierce (McFarland & Company, 1995):

"Cy Kendall - in his first of thirty two appearances on this radio show - portrayed Dr. Rossignol in the 11/23/36 episode, "The Story of Louis Pasteur," of the Lux Radio Theatre: "The Story of Louis Pasteur, which chronicles the struggles between the innovative French doctor (1822-95) and the established medical community, was brought to Lux on November 23, with Paul Muni and Fritz Leiber reprising their roles from the 1936 William Dieterle-directed film."

Kendall was a very busy man during the 1930s and 1940s.

Suffering from heart problems, Cy Kendall passed away on July 22, 1953 at the Motion Picture Home and Hospital, Woodland Hills, California.

The Family Search website (free), Ancestry.com (subscription), Fold3 military records, California Death Index and the death certificate provide more on Cy Kendall:

Ancestry had a birth record (not a birth certificate) for Cyrus W. Kendall, born March 10, 1898 in St. Louis, Missouri to John and Clara Kendall.
1900 census summary and census takers worksheet - renting in St. Louis, Missouri are 43 year old John W. Kendall (born Missouri; occupation "Driver - Fire Department"), his 33 year old wife Clara (born Missouri), and 2 year old son Syrus [sic] (born Missouri): https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M381-G76
World War I draft registration - 20 year old Cyrus Willard Kendall was born March 10, 1898. He lives in Pasadena, California, and is a "clerk" working for the F. W. Mather Co., Pasadena. His contact is father John Kendall who also lives in Pasadena: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KZV5-2XM
July 23, 1919 Los Angeles marriage license of 21 year old Cyrus W. Kendall (born Missouri; occupation "Clerk") and 22 year old Margaret Watson (born Scotland). Both were single and this is their first marriage. His parents were John W. Kendall and Clara Bruning: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K8D8-K43
1920 census summary and census takers worksheet - renting in Pasadena, California are 21 year old Cyrus W. Kendall (born Missouri), his 23 year old wife Margaret (born Scotland) and a boarder live on West Mountain Street, Pasadena, California. Cy's occupation is "Clerk - Dept. Store": https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MH7Z-PDL
1930 census summary and census takers worksheet - owning their home at 1921 Wagner Street, Pasadena, California are 32 year old Cyrus W. Kendall (born Missouri), his 33 year old wife Margaret (born Scotland), 9 year old daughter Catherine E. (born California), 4 year old daughter Margaret S. (born California), and 2 year old son John R. (born California). Cy reports that he was not a military veteran and his occupation is "Manager - Dry Goods": https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XC8Y-RMT
1940 census summary and census takers worksheet - owning their home at 1921 Wagner Street, Pasadena, California are 42 year old Cyrus W. Kendell [sic] (born Missouri), his 43 year old wife Margaret (born Scotland), 19 year old daughter Catherine (born California), 14 year old daughter Margaret (born California), and 12 year old son John R. (born California). Occupation of Cy Kendall is "Movie and Radio Actor - Theater": https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K9WC-Z32
Fold3 military records had his World War II draft registration dated February 14, 1942 - 43 year old Cyrus Willard Kendall was born March 10, 1898 in St. Louis, Missouri. Occupation is "Actor - no regular employer"; contact is "Al Kingston Co. (Agent)", Hollywood; and Cy is 6 feet, 1/2 inches tall and weighs 260 pounds.
Death certificate: Cyrus Willard Kendall was born March 10, 1898 in Missouri to John W. Kendall and Clara Elizabeth Brunen. His occupation was "Actor - Stage and Screen" and he was not a military veteran. Kendall was hospitalized for about four weeks at the Motion Picture Home and Hospital, Woodland Hills, California and passed away from heart problems on July 22, 1953. Death certificate informant was his wife Margaret Kendall, and they lived at 1921 Wagner Street, Pasadena, California. Funeral director was Ives and Warren in Pasadena and burial at Mountain View Mausoleum.
California Death Index mirrors the death certificate - Cyrus Willard Kendall was born 3/10/1898 in Missouri, Mother's maiden name of Brunen, and he passed away on 7/22/1953: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VPFN-P7X

Newspaper death notice on Kendall: https://www.newspapers.com/clip/75928114/death-notice-for-movie-and-radio-actor/

Find A Grave website confirms that Kendall is interred at Mountain View Cemetery, Altadena, California: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6910103/cy-kendall

Although some of the data is incomplete or inaccurate, the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) has information on Cy Kendall: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0447580/

Daniel Neyer's "The Files of Jerry Blake" website has a webpage on Cy Kendall doing serials: https://filesofjerryblake.com/serial-villains/cy-kendall/

Bill Hillman's site on Edgar Rice Burroughs has cast listings of the early Tarzan radio shows (which include Kendall): http://members.tripod.com/Hillmans/erbz143.html