Hollywood movie experiences

Kearney at the "Long Road Home" location in San Juan Bautista, California.

Kearney poses with car,dog, shack town and "Grapes of Wrath" type costume, ready for his role in "Long Road Home". Usually you are not allowed to shoot photos on a movie set, but this crew didn't seem to mind.

Kearney has a speaking scene in:"Creator" with world famous actor Peter O'Toole in downtown Santa Cruz, California! Here are newspaper clippings about some of the films I was involved with. Some other films I got to work on were: "Sudden Impact","Long Road Home","Terminator II" and "Pursuit of Happyness". (Mariel Hemingway and Peter O'Toole's autographs are on the card. Click photo to see more detail.


Candid Photos of Peter O'Toole by Ken Kearney.



Candid photos of Peter O'Toole with Ken Kearney during filming of "Creator". Location: downtown Santa Cruz.


Ken Kearney with Vikki Dougan on Rodeo Drive, L.A. during her birthday party dinner. (It was just the two of us.) I was doing some photo work in Los Angeles, California in the 1980's and got to know this famous and beautiful model. Vikki had appeared in several films too. She had even been on the cover of Life Magazine. (Polaroid camera shot with self timer).

Here are some of the magazine covers Vikki appeared on.


Vikki was known as "The Back". In her heyday,everything came to a halt when she walked through the door! Here is a Hollywood Associated Press photo of her at a party. (This shot appeared in a 1957 Playboy magazine story).



"SUDDEN IMPACT" candid photos by Ken Kearney
Clint Eastwood and Sondra Locke on location:Pacific Ave. Santa Cruz, CA
Actress Sondra Locke talks with crew prior to her next scene. Location: Pacific Ave. Santa Cruz, California.

Clint Eastwood on location in Santa Cruz (circa:1983) during the filming of "Sudden Impact". note:The female in the background is also in the insert studio photo I shot. I was an extra portraying a "cop" in a scene at Natural Bridges State Beach in this movie.

Cartoon I created of the movie action. I'm the cop holding back the crowd at a murder scene. Pat Hingle, Clint Eastwood and Sondra Locke are the center of attention. This was my first time at being a movie extra!

Here's the story that appeared in Hollywood Studio Magazine. click on photo for detail.



Candid Photos by Ken Kearney of actor Jack Lemmon
Jack Lemmon during 1975 filming of "The Entertainer" at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.


Crowd of extras with Jack at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, California. Click photos to see more detail.


Jack Lemmon rests between scenes.


Candid B/W Photos of Heuy Lewis at Santa Cruz Beach during music video shoot.
Heuy Lewis gets cozy with make-up artist for a touch-up. B/W photos by Kearney.

Candid photo by Kearney from the San Jose, CA location for "Kiss Shot", starring Whoppi Goldberg. Kearney was an extra playing the part of a body-guard.

Rough Sketches From Memory to do With " The Pursuit Of Happyness" starring Will Smith. circa 2005
POH as "The Pursuit of Happyness" was called on the set, employed a hugh supporting cast and crew. Every evening before the next days shoot, the extras needed to call in to the casting phone number. The extras were then informed where the shooting location would be in San Francisco, and what time to report to "home base". I worked for over two months on the film, mostly as a driver. I had a tan 1981 Buick-Skylark, just what was needed for the time setting of this movie. When I would get to "home-base" (one of the piers along the waterfront) early in the morning, the full moon would be lighting up the San Francisco skyline. The extras would line up for breakfast under the starlit skies before going to costume and make-up.
The crew was interesting to watch. They all had a certain job to take care of. Their clothing had a "grunge-look". They had to work tirelessly. There were a lot of props and people to keep track of. Sometimes whole city blocks were shutdown while the film action took place!

Casting Agent: Judy Bouley. Candid photo by Kearney in Aptos, CA location during "Brotherhood of Justice". circa:1983
Judy Bouley was a very kind casting agent. She placed me in my first role as a cop with Clint Eastwood in "Sudden Impact". Then there was the Peter O'Toole film "Creator" and "Lost Boys". Judy has worked on many big film projects.

Esther Williams/MGM swim star!

Esther Williams made a big impression on me as a young guy. Years later I wrote to her and told her so...and got a signed photo back!

Kathryn Grayson/MGM singing star
I also wrote to Kathryn Grayson and told her how much I enjoyed her films and recieved a signed 8x10 from her too!

Old "Good Times" cover art


Sample of one of the Santa Cruz "Good Times" covers I did a cartoon for. This is when the Rolling Stone logo style was in use. Jay Shore was the publisher/editor at the time. I traded photography/cartoon sevices for ad space to promote my photography studio in Aptos, California. I became well known in the Santa Cruz area. I would publish a different beautiful model's face in weekly ads.

In this case beautiful twins!

1969 Haight Ashbury, San Francisco,California

Hitch-hiking Cartoon Series: I worked up these rough drawings in hopes of getting them published. But alas that didn't happen. In the 1960's hitch-hiking took on a whole new look. Of course in the movies the most famous hitch-hiking scene was in:"It Happened One Night" with Clark Gable.

Hitch-hikers in love!
Going my way?

Any port in the storm!

This is no-where's-ville, man!


These were hitch-hiking scenes I actually saw.

This was the letter I sent along with the cartoon ideas to the editor of EYE magazine.

San Francisco, Haight Ashbury 1969 street photos

This is one of my favorite "street photos" from the old "Summer of Love" Haight Ashbury days. Shot on the corner of Cole and Haight Street. Note: the child sees me but nobody else notices I'm sneaking this shot. It looks like the dog is getting better treatment than the child. I was sitting in a parked car using a 135mm lens. Good thing nobody saw me....they might have thought I was a "nark"! I was living on Cole Street at the time with my first wife, and just getting into still photography. Note: if you click on this photo you will see amazing detail! There's a Timothy Leary flyer taped to the wall of the then Haight-Straight theater. Hey folks this is real history here!

More Street Shots...from late 1960's




Samples of my 1960's Haight Ashbury "black-light" posters









Here are examples of 2'x3' posters from my San Francisco,California Haight Ashbury days. Some are lithos others the silk screen printing process. They were in all the poster shops. The lithos were sold world wide. I had been working at NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View CA, for five years. One day in the late 1960's I quite that job and went to live in San Francisco. Next thing I know...I'm getting married and working with a bunch of wild hippies(who had a silk screen printing shop)and creating black-light cartoon posters. I created the color seperations on film.

Capitola CA, Christmas cartoon series 2006


This cartoon was cover art for the holiday edition of Capitola Times.

Ken in Destin Florida visits sisters Anne and Suzie


Ken with sisters, Destin Harbor in Florida, May 2007. It was great to visit with my beautiful sisters! I seldom get to see them. The weather was perfect,the sandy white beaches,the blue-green warm ocean was wonderful! It was also a time to help recover from my cancer operation just a few months earlier.

Ken Kearney fights cancer

Ken Kearney went through 12 hr. surgery Jan. 31st 2007 for pancreatic cancer. An emergancy trip to the Palo Alto Veterans Hospital showed I had an operable case. In March 2007 I was back in Santa Cruz on the mend. I wouldn't wish this on anyone! I went from 220 lbs to 165 lbs. I was so weak, I couldn't even lift myself up onto my elbows in bed. I'd look out the window and wonder if I would ever smell fresh air again! Now I just have to take some time to "smell the roses"! My life has changed forever. There was some local Santa Cruz media coverage on my experience...I recieved hundreds of heartfelt letters from friends and strangers.

Kearney in Intensive Care Unit. It was necessary to be there for over a week because of complications.




Some of the local media stories.


Sherry M. Wren, MD Associate Professor of Surgery, who performed the operation.


Lynne Dempsey RN,MS,CS General Surgery Clinical Nurse Specialist

Some kind doctors and nurses who saved my life.

Kearney still stressing on posting images

It's October 2006....and still missing steps to post images....well... sometime soon?