Early roles

Kelly made his film debut in an uncredited role in the 1939 biopic The Story of Alexander Graham Bell. In early 1954, he appeared in the film noir Drive a Crooked Road, written by Blake Edwards and Richard Quine. On July 15, 1954, Kelly played the gunfighter, cattleman, and bandit Clay Allison in the television series Stories of the Century.^[9]

In 1955-1956 television season, Kelly starred in a series based on the 1942 feature film Kings Row starring Ann Sheridan and Ronald Reagan. He played Dr. Parris Mitchell, a young psychiatrist coping with the narrow-minded environment of his small town while Robert Horton played the part originally performed by Reagan in the theatrical film. King's Row was one-third of the Warner Bros. Presents wheel series, hosted by Gig Young. It rotated at the scheduled hour of 7:30 Eastern on Tuesday with a similar television version of the popular movie Casablanca as well as the new ABC Western series Cheyenne. After the series ended in 1956, Kelly appeared in Forbidden Planet (1956) and She Devil (1957), along with guest roles on Fireside Theater, Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, Lux Video Theatre, and Gunsmoke.

Maverick (1957–1962)

The various anti-heroic Mavericks were dapper professional poker-players roaming the Old West with the benefit of superb scripts (at least in the first two seasons; the show gradually declined during the last three seasons). The series had an enormous cultural impact during a time when there were only three television networks and most American cities had only three TV channels to choose from.

Maverick's demanding filming schedule had caused production to lag behind early on. The producers decided to give Bret Maverick (James Garner) a brother so as not to run out of episodes long before the end of the season. Thus, Kelly was introduced as Bart Maverick in "Hostage," the eighth episode of the series.

Kelly shared the lead with James Garner in one of the show's famous episodes, "Shady Deal at Sunny Acres", on which the first half of the 1973 movie The Sting appears to be based. The pair also co-starred in the famous "Pappy" episode in which Garner played the brothers' much-quoted father Beauregard "Pappy" Maverick, in addition to his regular role of Bret. Aided by trick photography, Bret and Pappy play cards together in one scene (Kelly had a dual role in the episode as well, playing Bart and elderly Uncle Bentley "Bent" Maverick). Bart rescued Bret at the climax of "Duel at Sundown", in which Garner fought guest star Clint Eastwood.

Garner had first choice of which part he would play in the two-brother episodes, which delineated the brothers as "Maverick 1" and "Maverick 2" in the scripts, giving him an enormous advantage. All but one script during the show's first two years were written with Garner in mind regardless of which actor was be cast. Series creator Roy Huggins insisted that the writers visualize Garner as Maverick while writing the scripts, according to his Archive of American Television interview. The second-season episode in which Maverick was written with Kelly in mind instead of Garner was titled "Passage to Fort Doom."

Although the "solo" episodes in which Bart appeared tended to be somewhat more dramatic than the often more humorous Bret episodes, Kelly displayed his comedic skills in lighter Maverick outings such as "Hadley's Hunters" and "The People's Friend." Kelly actually appeared in more episodes of Maverick than James Garner, who left the show following a contract dispute in 1960 to successfully accelerate his theatrical film career. Kelly appeared in approximately 75 episodes due to his remaining for the entire run of the series; Garner is in 52 episodes altogether not counting introducing Kelly's earlier solo episodes in a separate frontispiece to ease audiences into the presence of a second Maverick during much of the first season.

In the wake of Garner's departure, Roger Moore played Bart's cousin Beau Maverick in 14 episodes, sharing the screen with Kelly in three of them, while Garner look-alike Robert Colbert appeared in two installments as a third brother wearing Bret's costume and named Brent, one of which briefly featured Kelly. The series was canceled after the fifth season, which consisted of Kelly appearing as the only Maverick in new episodes alternating with reruns of Garner shows from earlier seasons. The billing at the beginning of the show was reversed in the fifth season, with Kelly being billed above Garner. Kelly maintained that he was never notified of the cancellation by the studio but instead wound up learning about it in a newspaper article.

• James Garner and Jack Kelly
• James Garner and Kelly
• Julie Adams and Kelly
• Kelly, Kathleen Crowley and Mike Road
• Kelly and Paula Raymond
• Kelly and Jackie Searl

Later career

When Maverick ended in 1962, Kelly continued acting with roles in a number of films and television shows. In 1962, he played the lead in Red Nightmare (also known as The Commies Are Coming, the Commies Are Coming in its derisive 1985 video re-release incarnation) a Cold War film narrated by Jack Webb in which Kelly's character wakes up one morning to discover that America has been taken over by Communists.

On December 30, 1963, Kelly appeared in "The Fenton Canaby Story" on ABC's Wagon Train. Canaby, played by Kelly, is a former trailmaster with a dark secret he refuses to discuss. He is attracted to Lucy Garrison, a young woman with her own questionable past portrayed by Barbara Bain.^[10]

Kelly co-starred in Commandos (1968) and as a villain dressed quite similarly to Bart Maverick who beats Angie Dickinson with his belt in his hotel room in Young Billy Young (1969). From 1969 to 1971, Kelly hosted the daytime game show Sale of the Century, but he was replaced by Joe Garagiola. He was also briefly a series regular in Get Christie Love! (1974) and The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries (1978), and performed many lucrative television commercial voice-overs.^{[citation needed]}

In 1977 Kelly appeared as obstreperous villains for a few moments in two episodes of James Garner's series Rockford Files. The first appearance was in the season 3 episode "The Becker Connection," and the second was the first show of season 4, "Beamer's Last Case" as a jealous husband. In 1978, he briefly appeared as Bart Maverick and was again paired with Garner in the TV movie The New Maverick and in Garner's TV series Bret Maverick (1981; Kelly appeared momentarily at the end of the final episode of the show and would have become a regular had it been renewed).^{[citation needed]} He showed up on a 1983 episode of The Fall Guy, costumed as Bart Maverick but playing himself in a story that rounded up many classic TV cowboys. In 1991, he reprised the role of Bart Maverick one last time in the Kenny Rogers vehicle The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw.^{[citation needed]} Kelly died the following year.