Edd Byrnes

Did you know?!

1. Getting ready for a role

   Byrnes played Kenneth Smiley, known as Kookie, a contract killer who kept combing his hair. Byrnes said the idea was his, and the director liked it and kept it in.

2. About the name

   Byrnes changed his acting name from Edward to Edd on his own, saying he simply dreamed it up one day because Edward sounded too formal.

3. A role that slipped away

   Byrnes had to turn down roles in Ocean's Eleven, Rio Bravo, North to Alaska and The Longest Day because of restrictions in his Warner Brothers television contract.

4. A role that slipped away

   Byrnes tested for the part of John F. Kennedy in PT 109, but the president preferred Cliff Robertson for the role.

5. First role

   Byrnes got his start in 1956 with an unpaid job at the Litchfield Community Playhouse in Connecticut, where he soon began acting in the company's plays.

6. Beyond film

   Edd Byrnes teamed with Connie Stevens on the 1959 recording "Kookie, Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb)", which spent 13 weeks on the charts and climbed to No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. It moved over a million copies and took a gold disc from the RIAA.