Kelly Senior was a theater ticket broker, and after he moved the family to Hollywood, entered the real estate business.

[6][4] Kelly served as a weather observer in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II, where he was on the first B-29 to fly over the Arctic Circle.

In early 1954, he appeared in the film noir Drive a Crooked Road, written by Blake Edwards and Richard Quine.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Bart rescued Bret at the climax of "Duel at Sundown", in which Garner fought guest star Clint Eastwood.

Series creator Roy Huggins insisted that the writers visualize Garner as Maverick while writing the scripts, according to his Archive of American Television interview.

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.

[citation needed] In 1977 Kelly appeared as obstreperous villains for a few moments in two episodes of James Garner's series Rockford Files.

[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.

[5] During the 1980s and early 1990s, he served as Huntington Beach city councilman and mayor][1] campaigning with the slogan "Let Maverick Solve Your Problems.