Biography

He made his longtime friend and drinking buddy, Z-grade writer/director Edward D. Wood Jr. the executor of his estate. After his funeral, his wake was held at Wood's swimming pool, which each of the guests reminiscing about Duncan standing on the diving board.

First contracted with Universal in the late silent-sound transition period before briefly signing with Paramount. He spent the majority of the 1930s working in and out of Poverty Row, making a handful of pictures in the mid-'30s in Canada for Booth/Dominion (a low-budget company). He spent much of 1937 in England making three films there before becoming a lower-rung western star along Gower Gulch.

Although he occasionally ventured outside of the low budget western genre, even doing some serial work, he is largely remembered for the multitude of B-westerns he appeared in, often as a bad guy. In reality, he was an avid sailor, hunter, and fun loving hard drinking, notorious womanizer who gravitated toward an eclectic group of friends (Edward D. Wood Jr. was one of his closest pals).

His name is pronounced "Kenny.".

Alcoholism and ill health (he was on prescribed medication for a stroke suffered the year before) led to his suicide from an overdose of barbiturates.