24 Facts About Bill Kerr

William Henry Kerr was a British and Australian actor, comedian, and vaudevillian.

In 1979 Bill Kerr returned to Australia and developed a second career as a character actor.

Bill Kerr was born in Cape Town, South Africa, on 10 June 1922 to an Australian performing arts family, growing up in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia.

Bill Kerr began to work in radio for ABC in 1932, and continued performing child parts for about eight years.

Bill Kerr's first dramatic role on screen was a high-profile one in the Cinesound film The Silence of Dean Maitland, where he displays striking presence as a blind child.

Bill Kerr is one of the most important child performers in early Australian film.

Bill Kerr saw service in the Australian army during the Second World War, and performed in theatrical shows at home and abroad and toured with his friend, the actor Peter Finch.

Unlike James, Bill Kerr did not feature in the television version of the Hancock series.

Bill Kerr starred in the radio drama series The Flying Doctor, 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, Bill Kerr briefly resumed working with him in the first series of the television comedy Citizen James.

Bill Kerr had much theatrical success in Britain, playing 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.

Bill Kerr appeared in a touring production of the play The Teahouse of the August Moon in 1956.

Bill Kerr worked with Spike Milligan and appeared in Milligan and John Antrobus's stage play The Bed-Sitting Room, which opened at the Mermaid Theatre on 31 January 1963.

Bill Kerr took the part of Bluey Notts, described as "an Australian bookie's clerk, a crude racialist", in The Melting Pot.

Bill Kerr appeared in several British films, such as The Dam Busters and The Wrong Arm of the Law.

In 1979, Bill Kerr returned to Australia and settled in Perth, Western Australia.

Bill Kerr worked on the Australian stage during the 1980s, in musicals such as My Fair Lady, where he received excellent reviews as Alfred Doolittle.

Bill Kerr played real-life Australian military personalities on three occasions, appearing as bomber pilot Micky Martin in The Dam Busters, as General John Monash in the TV mini-series Anzacs and as General Harry Chauvel in the film The Lighthorsemen.

Bill Kerr appeared in Glenview High and the television comedy series Minty and played the part of Douglas Kennedy in the soap opera The Young Doctors.

Bill Kerr was seen as Dave Welles in the Australian mini-series Return To Eden where he helped Stephanie Harper after she had been attacked by a crocodile.

Bill Kerr reprised his role of Dave Welles in the 1985 series of Return To Eden by giving Stephanie a deed to a worthless section of land in the Northern Territory.

On 26 January 2011, Bill Kerr received the 2011 Walk of Honour in Wagga Wagga, which was unveiled on 17 May 2011.

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

Bill Kerr had four children: William, Peter, Wilton and Anne.