A Maverick Life

Linda J. Alexander's exhaustive research has produced an unforgettable biography of Jack Kelly, the 1950s movie and television star. In real life, Jack was a child performer, the son of New York model Nan Kelly, brother of actress Nancy Kelly, and the brother-in-law of actor Edmond O'Brien and cinematographer Fred Jackman Jr. He was also a child star in the late 1930s. He appeared in A Crooked Road with Mickey Rooney (1954), To Hell and Back (1955) with Audie Murphy, and the Science Fiction classic The Forbidden Planet (1956) with Leslie Nielsen. Jack is perhaps best known today in his role as James Garner's brother on the classic American television Western series, Maverick (1957-1962). In the late 1960s and 1970s, he continued to appear on American television as the game show host of Sale of the Century, and he also starred in movies, such as Get Christie Love (1975), and again on television in the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew series, among many others. Jack was more than a Hollywood cinema star. He also served as a city councilman and two-term Mayor of Huntington Beach, California, in addition to his work as a newspaper publisher. He loved some of the most beautiful women in Hollywood, became a husband, and would probably tell everyone that his greatest joy was in being a father. This biography draws from exhaustive research and numerous interviews with Jack's family, friends, and co-stars. The book includes a treasure trove of professional and personal family photographs.