Keenan Wynn (July 27, 1916 – October 14, 1986) was an American character actor and member of a well-known show-business family. His bristling mustache and expressive face were his stock in trade as an actor.

He was born in New York, New York as Francis Xavier Aloysius James Jeremiah Keenan Wynn, the son of Jewish American vaudeville comedian Ed Wynn, and his Irish-American Catholic wife, the former Hilda Keenan, but took his stage name from his maternal grandfather, Frank Keenan, one of the first Broadway actors to star in Hollywood.

Keenan Wynn became an actor with Ed Wynn's encouragement, and the two appeared together in the original television production of Rod Serling's Requiem for a Heavyweight as well as a subsequent TV drama detailing the problems they'd experienced while working on that show called The Man in the Funny Suit. The Wynns, Serling and much of the cast and crew played themselves in that.

Keenan Wynn appeared in hundreds of movies and television shows between 1934 and 1986. Early notable Wynn performances can be seen in See Here Private Hargrove, The Clock, Week-End at the Waldorf, Royal Wedding and Annie Get Your Gun. He had a featured role in Kiss Me, Kate and The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit. A brief but memorable Wynn performance came as U.S. Army Colonel "Bat" Guano in Dr. Strangelove. He appeared as villainous Alonzo P. Hawk in the "flubber" movies, The Absent-Minded Professor and Son of Flubber, in which his father and eldest son appeared as well. Wynn took a dramatic turn as Yost in Point Blank with Lee Marvin. He played Hezakiah in the 1965 movie, The Great Race. He was the voice of the Winter Warlock in the holiday classic Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town and was in several Disney films, including Herbie Rides Again (curiously, as Alonzo A. Hawk, although the character is virtually identical to the Flubber versions), Snowball Express, and The Shaggy D.A.. He had an uncredited role in Touch of Evil. He also appeared in Phone Call from a Stranger, Finian's Rainbow, Once Upon a Time in the West, Laserblast, Joe Dante's Piranha, Robert Altman's Nashville, Dino De Laurentiis' Orca, Sidney Lumet's That Kind of Woman and Just Tell Me What You Want, and the cult favorite Parts: The Clonus Horror. He was a regular on Dallas from 1979-1980, playing the part of "Digger Barnes". Both Laserblast and Parts: The Clonus Horror would later be featured on the American movie-mocking television series Mystery Science Theater 3000. He guest-starred as a quarrelsome aging actor on a epsiode of Quincy ME.

In later years, Wynn took time to support various philanthropic groups. He was an active member of the Westwood Sertoma service club, in West Los Angeles, for many years until his death from cancer at the age of 70.

Wynn was married to Eve Lynn Abbott (1914-2004) until their divorce in 1947, whereupon Abbott married actor Van Johnson. One son, actor and writer Ned Wynn (born Edmond Keenan Wynn) wrote the autobiographical memoir We Will Always Live In Beverly Hills. His other son, Tracy Keenan Wynn, is a screenwriter whose credits include The Longest Yard and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman.

He was uncle by marriage to the Hudson Brothers and his daughter Hilda is recently divorced from actor/singer/songwriter Paul Williams.

Character actor Keenan Wynn was born into a famous show-business family. One in particular is his father, Ed Wynn. Keenan was the one to help to push his father to also become a well-known character actor. Father and son starred in several movies together, such as Hucksters, The (1947), Annie Get Your Gun (1950) and Kiss Me Kate (1953).

The talented scion of a show business family, Keenan Wynn's father was the great burlesque and TV buffoon Ed Wynn while his maternal grandfather, Frank Keenan, earned distinction on the other side of the entertainment ladder as a Shakespearean tragedian. Mother Hilda Keenan was also a minor actress. Born in New York City on July 27, 1916, during the height of his father's Broadway popularity, Keenan grew up in the lap of luxury and was educated at St. Johns Military Academy. He initially followed in his grandfather's dramatic footsteps as opposed to his dad's clown shoes, making his professional bow in Maine with the Lakewood Players in a production of "Accent of Youth". By 1937 he was on Broadway with "Hitch Your Wagon" in two small roles. During the run of the show he met first wife, actress Eve Abbott, who became his coach, manager and advisor. At the same time he began to get steady radio work. Through the aid and encouragement of his wife and her contacts, he eventually wrangled screen tests for both Twentieth Century-Fox and MGM Turned down by the first studio, he signed with MGM at a rather low pay scale of $300 a week. At MGM Keenan became THE utilitarian character player, adept at playing almost anything handed to him. Balding, homely but with real distinctive, imposing features, he made his unbilled debut in Somewhere I'll Find You (1942), and went on to play a grab-bag of shady brutes usually in comic relief style. He was Gene Kelly (I)'s agent in For Me and My Gal (1942); a gangster in Lost Angel (1943), a soldier buddy to Robert Walker (I) in See Here, Private Hargrove (1944) and its sequel; a drunk in a diner in Clock, The (1945), Lucille Ball's tipsy beau in the Hepburn/Tracy vehicle Without Love (1945); and a news editor paired up with Ms. Ball again in Easy to Wed (1946). Moreover, he was given "B" co-star assignments in lesser material such as Thrill of Brazil, The (1946), No Leave, No Love (1946) and Cockeyed Miracle, The (1946). Two sons were born to Keenan and Eve during the war years but he and Eve soon drifted apart. In 1946 the couple filed divorce papers with a third-party involvement in the form of family close friend and MGM star Van Johnson (I). Eve went on to marry Johnson the day after the couple's divorce was decreed in 1947. Keenan's second marriage in 1949 to Betty Jane Butler lasted only four years. He re-signed with MGM in the post-war years and ventured on as one of Hollywood's strongest character players. The drawback was that not many of his roles were high-quality challenges, roles that might have moved him toward the top of the MGM hierarchy. The more scene-stealing roles that came to him were his disagreeable, self-important burlesque star in the Clark Gable starrer Hucksters, The (1947); his jazz reedman in Song of the Thin Man (1947); and the songwriter pal to Kirk Douglas (I) in My Dear Secretary (1949). He was also given his quota of vulgar, blunt-talking bad guys to play, both comically and dramatically, in such films as Love That Brute (1950), Kind Lady (1951) and, in particular, his Runyonesque gangster in the musical classic Kiss Me Kate (1953). Partnered with cohort James Whitmore, their rendering of "Brush Up Your Shakespeare" was one of many comedy highlights. He also doled out a number of brash soldier types such as in Fearless Fagan (1952), Battle Circus (1953), Code Two (1953) and Men of the Fighting Lady (1954). After leaving MGM in 1954, he set his sights on TV, but the lure of films (and steady work) never stopped. In Great Man, The (1956), Keenan finally appeared with father Ed Wynn who had suffered a major career slide and resultant nervous breakdown. Keenan, who at one time had gone to great lengths to extricate himself from his father's famous shadow, was now an instrument of encouragement. He suggested the elder Wynn abandon his old-styled clowning in favor of a serious character acting. His father agreed to try and appeared in a small role in the film but they had no scenes together. The risk worked. The following year both were being hailed for their superlative work together in the dramatic TV production of _Requiem for a Heavyweight (1957) (TV)_. Disney employed both father and son in the 1960s with a mustachioed Keenan an exceptionally hissable villain in the studio's comedy feature _Absent Minded Professor, The (1961)_ and its sequel Son of Flubber (1963). His hammy antics were spurred on in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), Great Race, The (1965), Viva Max! (1969) and Pretty Maids All in a Row (1971), along with standard, if not always stand-out, TV work. His annoying, fast-talking con men, scheming tycoons, and other unappetizing cronies never lost their demand. In 1975 he earned an Emmy nomination for his guest work on "Police Woman". Though his later years were marred by a severe case of tinnitus, a ringing in the ear that blocks out exterior sound, he was able to continue acting until the very end. One of his last roles was as a regular on the short-lived TV series "Last Precinct, The" (1986). Sons Ned Wynn ("Edmund") and Tracy Keenan Wynn became successful writers in the business. Keenan died of pancreatic cancer at age 70 in 1986 and was survived by third wife Sharley Jean Hudson, who had two daughters, Hilda and Edwynna, by him.