Did Kent McCord Play Football With Elvis — Plus Other Fun Facts About the ‘Adam-12′ Star
Adam-12 star Kent McCord always knew the value of hard work and taking a good opportunity that came your way. The handsome actor, born Kent Franklin McWhirter, started working at his dad’s gas station at age 10 and traded labor for flying lessons at a local airport by age 12. But it was a chance game of touch football in 1961 that pointed the now 82-year-old McCord to Hollywood. The captain of McCord’s team turned out to be The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet star Ricky Nelson. Helming the opposing team? Then 26-year-old Elvis Presley.
Not long after that game, McCord made his first of 39 appearances on Ozzie and Harriet, playing Ricky Nelson’s fraternity brother Kent. He’d stay in the role for 5 years until the series ended in 1966, all the while taking bit parts in a run of Elvis features.
McCord’s chiseled good looks (he and NFL icon Tom Brady are a match) made him a natural to play authority figures from cops to army captains to astronauts. That trait would lead him to his most famous role, Officer Jim Reed, on the NBC police procedural. Reed his first appearance on the Jack Webb series Dragnet 1967, then become a regular character on the Webb produced Adam-12 the following year.
At the start, Reed was an idealistic rookie eager to learn the ropes of police work on the mean streets of Los Angeles. Paired with disillusioned veteran officer Pete Malloy (Martin Milner), Reed’s earnestness worked well with his seasoned partner’s pragmatism, bringing out the best in both cops.
Everett Collection
So how did McCord follow up his time in the Adam-12 cruiser? Here are 5 more facts you might not know about the still handsome star.
1 He was his hometown’s police chief at age 16
For a day, anyway. When McCord was in high school, he participated in “Switch Day,” which saw students and city officials swap roles for one day. Thus, McCord served as Baldwin Park, California’s chief of police for what was likely one of the best days of the teenager’s life. Until he showed up for that football matchup at age 19, that is.
2 McCord can (briefly) be seen in five Elvis features
Gene Trindl/ Everett Collection
After that fateful game, McCord landed bit parts in the Elvis starrers Viva Las Vegas (1964), Kissin’ Cousins (1964), Roustabout (1964), Girl Happy (1965) and Frankie and Johnny (1966).
3 McCord played Officer Reed on other shows, too
In addition to Dragnet 1967 and Adam-12, McCord appeared as Officer Reed on The D.A. (“The People vs. Saydo”), Emergency! (“The Wedsworth-Townsend Act”), Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In and The New Adam-12 (“R.T.D. 211”). He and Milner also reprised their characters in the 1978 TV movie, Confessions of the D.A. Man.
4 McCord became an actual law enforcement officer
Webb and his producing partner Robert A. Cinader sought to bring realistic depictions of the jobs of first responders in Adam-12 and its sister show, Emergency! That commitment to realism led to actual partnerships with real Los Angeles police departments, EMT teams and hospitals — and an allegiance from the shows’ cast members to the real-life counterparts with whom they trained.
On Oct. 14, 2000, McCord and Milner received the LAPD Historical Society’s Jack Webb Award for their support of the LAPD. Three years later, McCord was sworn in as a real-life police reservist for the Los Angeles Unified School District Police Department.
His badge number? The same as Officer Jim Reed’s: 2430.
5 McCord and Milner played partners again
In the late ’80s, McCord tried his hand at screenwriting, teaming up with Emergency! scribe turned soap writer Hannah L. Shearer to create the 1989 TV film, The Nashville Beat. The movie, which aired on the now defunct Nashville Network (better known as TNN) featured McCord as widowed Los Angeles police lieutenant Mike Delaney who heads for Music City to help his former partner, Captain Brian O’Neal (Milner) defeat a dangerous gang.
TNN/Courtesy Everett Collection
Where Is Kent McCord Now?
About to be 83 (his birthday is Sept. 26), McCord is the last remaining Adam-12 cast member alive. Though mainly retired, he does occasionally do voice work, and he will be appearing at the Hollywood Show in Burbank, Sept. 5-6, 2025.
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