Louis Lacy Clinton Kimbrough was an actor from the United States.
Early life
Kimbrough was born in Oklahoma City, to parents Fred and Lucinda Kimbrough. After his birth, his family moved to Allen, Oklahoma, where Kimbrough attended Allen High School, graduating in 1951. Kimbrough demonstrated theatrical ability while still at school. In 1948, as President of Allen's Teen Town, he helped produce the "Gay Nineties Ball". As a junior at AHS, he wrote, produced and directed the 1950 senior play, a full-length production entitled Broadway. After graduating from AHS, Kimbrough enrolled for a year at Oklahoma University. He then completed two years in the US Signal Corps, stationed in Korea, before he made his professional stage debut in Brandon Thomas's play Charley's Aunt in 1953 aged 20, billed as "Lewis Clinton Kimbrough".
He subsequently enrolled in the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. Shortly thereafter, with the help of fellow Oklahoman Lonny Chapman, Kimbrough joined Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio, an incubator for acting talent. Kimbrough gained a reputation for his ability to understand the character he was asked to play. His work with The Actor's Studio resulted in his first film role, The Strange One, which used a cast and crew entirely of Actor's Studio personnel. An appearance in A Face in the Crowd followed, and Kimbrough established a working relationship with director Elia Kazan that lasted ten years.
Television and film
In the late 1950s, Kimbrough appeared on live television on numerous occasions, including weekly shows such as Westinghouse Studio One, G.E. Theater and U.S. Steel Hour. Kimbrough had a feature role in Hal B. Wallis's 1958 Hot Spell, followed by performances in an acclaimed 11-month Broadway run of Thornton Wilder's Our Town and an NBC TV production of the same work, both directed by José Quintero. During the 1960s, Kimbrough's work in the theater and on Broadway, performing the works of Shakespeare, Arthur Miller, Neil Simon, Eugene O'Neill and Tennessee Williams. Kimbrough moved from New York to Hollywood in the late 1960s and developed an association with Roger Corman, known as "King of the B Movies", with roles in several 1970s film productions, such as Von Richthofen and Brown, Bloody Mama, Crazy Mama and the Nurse movies.
Personal life
Kimbrough was once married to Frances Doel, writer of Crazy Mama. He died in Ada, Oklahoma in 1996, of pneumonia.
Since 2007, a film festival has taken place in Allen, Oklahoma during the annual Alumni Weekend in June, aiming to acquaint the public with Kimbrough's career and work.
