Ken Jenkins is an American actor, best known for his role as Dr. Bob Kelso

Bob Kelso

Robert "Bob" Kelso, M.D. , is a fictional character played by Ken Jenkins in the American comedy-drama Scrubs....

, the Chief of Medicine on the American comedy Scrubs

Scrubs (TV series)

Scrubs is an American medical comedy-drama television series created in 2001 by Bill Lawrence and produced by ABC Studios. The show follows the lives of several employees of the fictional Sacred Heart, a teaching hospital. It features fast-paced screenplay, slapstick, and surreal vignettes...

.

In 1969, he co-founded the Actors Theatre of Louisville

Actors Theatre of Louisville

Actors Theatre of Louisville is a performing arts theater located in downtown Louisville, Kentucky. It was founded in 1964 by Louisville native Ewel Cornett, local producer Richard Block and actor Ken Jenkins of Scrubs fame, and was designated the "State Theater of Kentucky" in 1974. It is run as a...

 and served as the Associate Artistic Director for three years. This institution has produced playwrights such as Beth Henley

Beth Henley

Elizabeth Becker "Beth" Henley is an American dramatist and actress. She writes primarily about women's issues and family in the Southern United States. She is also a screenwriter who has written many film adaptations of her plays...

 and Marsha Norman

Marsha Norman

Marsha Norman is an American playwright, screenwriter, and novelist. She received the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play night, Mother...

. Jenkins previously appeared on the series Adult Math, as well as episodes of Homefront, The X-Files

The X-Files

The X-Files is an American science fiction television series and a part of The X-Files franchise, created by screenwriter Chris Carter. The program originally aired from to . The show was a hit for the Fox network, and its characters and slogans became popular culture touchstones in the 1990s...

(episode "Medusa", season 8), Babylon 5

Babylon 5

Babylon 5 is an American science fiction television series created, produced and largely written by J. Michael Straczynski. The show centers on a space station named Babylon 5: a focal point for politics, diplomacy, and conflict during the years 2257–2262...

and "Evolution", the Season three premiere episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Star Trek: The Next Generation is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry as part of the Star Trek franchise. Roddenberry, Rick Berman, and Michael Piller served as executive producers at different times throughout the production...

"Sliders" (2 episodes, 1989–1990) Dust (2000) TV episode .... Professor Jack Bigelow
- Revelations (1999) TV episode .... Robert Clark.

He has appeared in the movies Executive Decision

Executive Decision

Executive Decision is a 1996 action film, directed by Stuart Baird and starring Kurt Russell, Halle Berry and Steven Seagal. The original music was composed by Jerry Goldsmith...

, The Abyss

The Abyss

The Abyss is a 1989 science fiction film written and directed by James Cameron. It stars Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and Michael Biehn. The original musical score was composed by Alan Silvestri...

, Air America

Air America (film)

Air America is a 1990 American action comedy film directed by Roger Spottiswoode, starring Mel Gibson and Robert Downey Jr. as Air America pilots, during the Vietnam War, flying missions in Laos...

, Last Man Standing

Last Man Standing (film)

Last Man Standing is a 1996 action film written and directed by Walter Hill, starring Bruce Willis, Christopher Walken, and Bruce Dern. It is a credited remake of the Akira Kurosawa film Yojimbo.- Plot :...

, Fled

Fled

Fled is a 1996 action film directed by Kevin Hooks. A remake of the 1958 film The Defiant Ones, the film stars Laurence Fishburne and Stephen Baldwin as a pair of escaped criminals on the run from the police, corrupt officials and the Cuban Mafia....

, Gone in 60 Seconds, I Am Sam

I Am Sam

I Am Sam is a 2001 American drama film written and directed by Jessie Nelson, and starring Sean Penn as a father with a developmental disability, Dakota Fanning as his inquisitive seven-year-old daughter, and Michelle Pfeiffer as his lawyer...

, The Sum of All Fears

The Sum of All Fears (film)

The Sum of All Fears is a 2002 American action film/political thriller directed by Phil Alden Robinson and based on the novel The Sum of All Fears by Tom Clancy...

, Matewan

Matewan

Matewan is an American drama film written and directed by John Sayles, illustrating the events of a coal mine-workers' strike and attempt to unionize in 1920 in Matewan, a small town in the hills of West Virginia....

, Courage Under Fire

Courage Under Fire

Courage Under Fire is a 1996 film directed by Edward Zwick, and starring Denzel Washington, Meg Ryan, Lou Diamond Phillips and Matt Damon. It is one of the first films to depict the 1991 Gulf War.-Plot:...

and the 1998 remake

Psycho (1998 film)

Psycho is a 1998 American horror film produced and directed by Gus Van Sant for Universal Pictures, a remake of the 1960 film directed by Alfred Hitchcock...

 of Psycho

Psycho (1960 film)

Psycho is a 1960 American suspense/psychological horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins. The film is based on the screenplay by Joseph Stefano, who adapted it from the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch...

. He appeared as the father of Fran Goldsmith in Stephen King

Stephen King

Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...

's TV miniseries, The Stand

The Stand (TV miniseries)

# Project Blue [1:33]# The Dream Begins [2:08]# On the Road to Kansas [3:57]# The Trashmen in Vegas [1:58]# Headin' West [1:56]# Larry & Nadine [2:38]# Mother Abigail [3:10]# 'Sorry Mister, I Don't Understand' [2:54]# Mid Country [3:22]...

. Jenkins also had a role in Clockstoppers

Clockstoppers

Clockstoppers is a 2002 science fiction film released by Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies. It was directed by Jonathan Frakes, produced by Gale Anne Hurd and Julia Pistor and written by Rob Hedden, Andy Hedden, J. David Stem and David N...

.

Jenkins can sing and play the acoustic guitar, and is seen doing so on the Scrubs episodes "My Tuscaloosa Heart" and "My Musical

My Musical

"My Musical" is a musical episode from the American comedy-drama television series Scrubs. It follows the story of Patti Miller, played by guest star Stephanie D'Abruzzo of Avenue Q fame, a woman who mysteriously starts hearing everyone's speech as singing.The episode was written by Deb Fordham,...

".

Jenkins also has a recurring role on Cougar Town

Cougar Town

Cougar Town is an American television sitcom that premiered on ABC on September 23, 2009. The series focuses on a recently divorced woman in her forties facing the often humorous challenges, pitfalls and rewards of life's next chapter, along with her son, ex-husband, and friends who together make...

since October 27, 2010, as the father of Jules (played by Courteney Cox

Courteney Cox

Courteney Bass Cox is an American actress, she is best known for her roles as Monica Geller on the NBC sitcom Friends, Gale Weathers in the horror series Scream and as Jules Cobb in the ABC sitcom Cougar Town, for which she earned her first Golden Globe nomination....

).
Jenkins also appears in The Blanks' music video for "Guy Love" as the owner of an L.A. bar.

Family

He married artist Joan Patchen in 1958, they divorced in 1969. Together, they had three sons, Matthew, Joshua and Daniel

Daniel H. Jenkins

Daniel H. Jenkins is an American actor, the son of Ken Jenkins and Joan Patchen. He was nominated for a Tony Award in 1985 for his role as Huckleberry Finn in Big River, his Broadway debut after he spent two years working with Actors Theatre in Louisville, Kentucky. He also played one of the lead...

, alongside whom he played a role in the Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 production of Big River

Big River (musical)

Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a musical with a book by William Hauptman and music and lyrics by Roger Miller.Based on Mark Twain's classic 1884 novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, it features music in the bluegrass and country styles in keeping with the setting of the novel...

(1985).

In January 1970 Jenkins married his current wife, actress Katharine Houghton

Katharine Houghton

Katharine Houghton is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Joanna "Joey" Drayton, a Caucasian woman who brings home an African-American fiancé to meet her parents, in the 1967 film Guess Who's Coming to Dinner...

 (the niece of Katharine Hepburn

Katharine Hepburn

Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies...

).

External links