- Born
- Died
- Birth nameJesse Kenneth Tobey
- Height1.75 m
- Born in Oakland, California, Kenneth Tobey was headed for a law career when he first dabbled in acting at the University of California Little Theater. That experience led to a year and a half of study at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse, where his classmates included Gregory Peck, Eli Wallach and Tony Randall. Throughout the 1940s Tobey acted on Broadway and in stock; he made his film debut in a 1943 short, "The Man on the Ferry." He made his Hollywood film bow in a Hopalong Cassidy Western, and has since appeared in scores of features and on numerous TV series. He even had his own series, Whirlybirds (1957), in which he played an adventurous helicopter pilot.- IMDb mini biography by: Tom Weaver <TomWeavr@aol.com>
- SpousesJune Hutton(February 2, 1968 - May 2, 1973) (her death)Violet Mae Coglan (Penny Parker)(June 29, 1951 - January 18, 1962) (divorced, 1 child)
- ParentsJesse Vincent TobeyFrances H. Kasavan
- Often played tough-talking men of action
- Frequently cast in 'Joe Dante' films.
- At the start of his career, every other year between 1951 and 1957, Tobey starred in a film in which he portrayed an officer charged with disposing of some sort of monster: The Thing From Another World (1951); The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953); It Came From Beneath the Sea (1955) and Vampire (1957). Then, after a 48 year gap, he repeated the pattern in his final film, The Naked Monster (2005).
- Interviewed in Tom Weaver's book "Attack of the Monster Movie Makers" (McFarland & Co., 1994).
- Had one daughter, Tina, by his first wife Penny.
- Stepbrother-in-law of Ina Ray Hutton.
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