Wes Kenney(1926-2015)
- Producer
- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Harry Wesley Kenney Jr. was born in Dayton, Ohio. He graduated from Carnegie Tech (Mellon) and was hired in the 1950s by Dumont TV Network in New York as a
director in an era where everything was live and shot with multiple cameras. He directed all genres, including dramas, kids shows, game shows, sports, and variety for ten years - on some days up to 12 live broadcasts a day. The next twenty years were spent directing for film and television, including Gidget (1965), All in the Family (1971) and The Jeffersons (1975).
After that, Kenney turned to a new field and became executive producer
on soap operas Days of Our Lives (1965) (1968-1979), The Young and the Restless (1973) (1982-1987) and General Hospital (1963)
(1987-1989), which garnered him 7 Emmys amongst 19 nominations within two decades. After that, Kenney began teaching students at the UCLA. He died January 13, 2015 of cardiac arrest in Santa Monica, California, at age 89.
