Background
McMillan was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Margaret and Harry McMillan, a truck driver.
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Kenneth McMillan
Edit ProfileEducation
He attended the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts.
Career
McMillan was usually cast as gruff, hostile and unfriendly characters due to his rough image. However, he was sometimes cast in some lighter roles that highlighted his more benign side. Personal life
Prior to becoming an actor, McMillan was employed at Gimbels Department Store first as a salesman, then as a section manager, and then a floor superintendent managing three floors.
At age 30, McMillan decided to pursue an acting career, and took acting lessons from Uta Hagen and Irene Dailey.
McMillan made his film debut at age 41 with a small role in Sidney Lumet"s police drama Serpico. The actor played a borough commander in The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, but often was cast as characters such as a cowardly small town sheriff in Tobe Hooper"s 1979 television mini-series Salem"s Lot, a similar law enforcement officer in the 1987 Burt Reynolds film Malone, William Hurt"s bitter paraplegic father in Eyewitness, a wily safe cracker in The Pope of Greenwich Village, and a racist fire chief in Ragtime who is memorably told off by the New York police commissioner, James Cagney.
He portrayed the grotesquely obese - and gleefully psychotic - Baron Vladimir Harkonnen in Dune, the pathetic drunken popular of Aidan Quinn in Reckless and a sleazy high roller gambler in "The Ledge," an episode of the horror anthology film Cat"s Eye. McMillan was also adept at comedy, giving performances as a baseball club manager in Blue Skies Again, Meg Ryan"s corrupt security guard captain dad in Armed and Dangerous and a dotty senile veterinarian in Three Fugitives.
McMillan had a recurring role as Valerie Harper"s irate boss Jack Doyle on the television sitcom "Rhoda." Among the television shows McMillan did guest spots on are Dark Shadows, Ryan"s Hope, as a 53rd precinct lieutenant on Kojak, Starsky and Hutch, The Rockford Files, Moonlighting, Lou Grant, Magnum, Philippine Islands and Murder, She Wrote.
Outside of his film and television credits, McMillan also frequently performed on stage at the New York Shakespeare Festival. He acted in the original Broadway productions of Streamers and American Buffalo. McMillan died of liver disease at age 56.
