Bill Kerr

William Henry Kerr (10 June 1922 – 28 August 2014) was a British and Australian actor, comedian and vaudevillian.

Born in South Africa, he started his career as a child actor in Australia, before emigrating to Britain after the Second World War, where he developed a career as a performer in comedy, especially gaining notice in the radio version of Hancock's Half Hour. In 1979 Kerr returned to Australia and developed a second career as a character actor.

Kerr was born on 10 June 1922, in Cape Town, to an Australian performing arts family, including mother Anne Roberts, while they were on tour in South Africa.^[1][2][3] His introduction to show business was as a baby in his mother’s arms for the rest of the tour, when upon returning to the stage a few weeks after giving birth, Kerr's mother began using him as a stand-in for a 'prop' doll.^[2][4] Kerr's grandfather was Professor Roberts, who ran a Dancing Academy in both Sydney and Melbourne.^[3]

From there, Kerr's family relocated to Wagga Wagga, in regional New South Wales, Australia.^[5] where his mother ensured he worked on his elocution, which paved the way for his acting career, beginning with youth roles in radio.^[2] He also performed in local musical theatre, revues and eisteddfods.^[6]

Kerr began to work in radio for ABC in 1932, and continued performing child parts for about eight years.^[7]

His first screen appearance was in Harmony Row (1933), where he gave a feisty performance as a juvenile delinquent alongside Australian vaudeville comedian George Wallace.^[8] He appeared alongside Wallace once more in the successful film His Royal Highness.^[2]

Kerr's first major role on screen came in 1934, with the Cinesound drama The Silence of Dean Maitland, where he played the part of a blind child.^[9][10] The film was one of Australia’s first talking pictures.^[2]

In his teens, Kerr worked at 2WG in Wagga Wagga as a radio announcer from 1939 to 1941.^[6]

Kerr served in the Australian army during the Second World War, alongside his friend, actor Peter Finch. While serving, he performed in theatrical shows in both Australia and abroad overseas.^[7][2]

At the end of the war, a newly married Kerr relocated to Britain in 1947,^[11] with his wife Margaret, to make his name overseas. The pair only had enough money for one ticket, so Kerr worked as a steward on the boat trip over.^[3]

During the next few years he was regularly featured in the BBC radio series Variety Bandbox, part of the BBC Light Programme. Retaining his accent, an unusual choice for performers moving to Britain at this time, he was billed as "the boy from Wagga Wagga." A spokesman for the Australian town's museum said that this "struck an instant chord with the post-war British audience, who thought of 'Wagga Wagga' as a comically surreal, end of the earth, magical place somewhere left of Narnia."^[12] Harry Secombe described Kerr as having a "very laconic act" on the show, beginning his spots with the catchphrase "I'm only here for four minutes."^[13] In 1952, Kerr embarked on a six week concert tour of Korea.^[3]

From 1954 to 1959, Kerr had a regular role as an Australian lodger in the BBC radio comedy series Hancock's Half Hour.^[14] The series, with comedian Tony Hancock as the eponymous lead and also featuring Sid James, ran for six series.^[1] Initially sharper than Hancock's characterisation, Kerr's portrayal eventually developed into a more dim-witted character who became the butt of Hancock's jokes.^[5] When Hancock moved to television, Kerr did not feature in the subsequent television version of the series.^[2]

During his tenure on Hancock's Half Hour, Kerr appeared in 1955 war film The Dam Busters,^[2] playing real life bomber pilot Micky Martin.

Kerr also had much theatrical success in Britain, appearing in a touring production of the play The Teahouse of the August Moon in 1956.^[15] He next played the Devil disguised as Mr Applegate in the first West End production of Damn Yankees, directed by Bob Fosse and first performed in March 1957.^[16]

From 1958 to 1963, Kerr starred in the radio drama series The Flying Doctor,^[17] his character regularly flying in and out of the fictitious Wollumboola base, as he and his 'doctor' colleague brought reprobates to justice in the outback. Later, after Sid James had ended his professional partnership with Hancock, Kerr briefly resumed working with him in the first season of the television comedy series Citizen James (1960).^[18] He also appeared in 1963 British film The Wrong Arm of the Law.^[19]

Kerr also worked with Spike Milligan, appearing in Milligan and John Antrobus's stage play The Bed-Sitting Room,^[20] which opened at the Mermaid Theatre on 31 January 1963.^[14][21] A subsequent production opened on 3 May 1967 at the Saville Theatre, with "a cast containing an unusually high proportion of Australian actors including Kerr and David Nettheim."^[21] In the 1969 London production of Play It Again, Sam at the Globe Theatre, Kerr played Humphrey Bogart.^[22]

Kerr's made further television appearances with a featured role in the 1968 Doctor Who serial The Enemy of the World, with Patrick Troughton^[23][24] and a long-running role in the early 1960s BBC-TV soap, Compact.

In 1972, Kerr co-starred with Anthony Newley in the Newley/Bricusse musical, The Good Old Bad Old Days,^[25] which enjoyed a run lasting 309 performances.^[26] He also had a role (with Julia McKenzie and Una Stubbs) in the musical play Cole, dedicated to the work of Cole Porter and first staged at the Mermaid Theatre, London in July 1974.^[27]

Kerr took the part of Bluey Notts, described as "an Australian bookie's clerk, a crude racialist", in The Melting Pot (1975). This was a sitcom written by Spike Milligan and Neil Shand, which was cancelled by the BBC after just one episode had been broadcast.^[28]

In 1979, after three decades of working in the UK, Kerr returned to Australia and settled in Perth, Western Australia, where his son William lived.^[11][10][2]

Kerr appeared in a recurring capacity on television series Glenview High in 1979. He then played the part of Douglas Kennedy in the soap opera The Young Doctors in 1980,^[29] before choosing to focus on versatile character roles. He played serious parts in Australian drama films, including Peter Weir's films Gallipoli (1981)^[30] and The Year of Living Dangerously (1982), both alongside Mel Gibson.^[10] He also appeared in comedy films with 1982 musical The Pirate Movie^[31] and 1985 film The Coca-Cola Kid.^[29] Additionally, he was seen as Dave Welles in the Australian miniseries Return to Eden (1983), a role he reprised in the 1985 full series of the same name.

Kerr's dramatic roles also continued, with turns as General John Monash in 1985 miniseries Anzacs, General Harry Chauvel in 1986 film The Lighthorsemen and a role in Kokoda Crescent (1989).^[32] He appeared in several other miniseries including 1915 (1982), The Heroes (1989), The Private War of Lucinda Smith (1991) and The River Kings (1991).^[33]

Kerr also worked on the Australian stage, in musicals such as My Fair Lady, where he received excellent reviews as Alfred Doolittle.^[1]

Kerr later had a recurring television role in comedy series Minty (1998).^[29] He also appeared in 2001 comedy film Let's Get Skase,^[29] miniseries Changi (2001) and The Shark Net (2003)^[33] and comedy adventure film Peter Pan (2003) opposite Jason Isaacs.^[32]

Additionally, he provided the narration for several documentaries including No Survivor – The Mysterious Loss of HMAS Sydney (1995) for the Nine Network, Malice or Mutiny (2003) for the ABC, and a series for Discovery, released in the US as Animal X (originally Animal X Natural Mystery Unit).

On 26 January 2011, Kerr received the 2011 Walk of Honour in Wagga Wagga, which was unveiled on 17 May 2011.^[34][35]

During time in Western Australia, Kerr met English teacher Margaret Weaver whom he married at St George's Cathedral. It was the first of his three marriages.^[2][22]

He had four children: William, Peter, Wilton and Anne. The last two were born late in Kerr's life, to his third wife, Sandra.^[36]

Kerr died in his family home in Perth, Western Australia, on 28 August 2014 at the age of 92.^[10]

• Bill Kerr at IMDb