H. Wesley Kenney Dies; TV Producer & Director Of Soaps, ‘All In The Family’

H. Wesley “Wes” Kenney, a producer-director who won seven Daytime Emmys and directed two dozen episodes of All In The Family, died Tuesday of cardiac arrest at Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, family friend Jodie Mann told Deadline. He was 89.

Kenney was a producer on hundreds of episodes of soap operas Days Of Our Lives, The Young And The Restless, The Doctors and General Hospital. During a 35-year career starting at the DuMont Television Network, he directed for such series as My Favorite Martian, Big John Little John, Flo and the pilot for All In The Family spinoff The Jeffersons, which aired an episode of Norman Lear’s landmark series starring Carroll O’Connor.

“I was an average guy, who with great luck was able to be successful,” he said in a 2008 interview with the Archive of American Television. “I think that’s as much as I can say. I love people. I love actors. I love doing the dramatic shows. So that’s how I’d like to be remembered, working with terrific people, great talented people.”

He was born Harry Wesley Kenney Jr on January 3, 1926, in Dayton, Ohio. After a stint in the Navy, he joined the DuMont Network, directing as many as a dozen live broadcasts a day. He helmed numerous episodes of the early ’50s series Rocky King, Detective, starring Roscoe Karns, and was at the control board for Mike Wallace’s 1950s interview programs Night Beat and The Mike Wallace Interview. Decades later, he taught at UCLA.

Kenney is survived by his wife, actress Heather North Kenney; sons Wesley and Kevin; daughters Nina and Kara; seven grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.