General Chat

Jude ! Me Cheeky ? Indeed.

Your the only one that thought of me Your forgiven. <3 <3 <3

Bill....lol...sorry ;-)

jude

R.I.P. Bill, of Wagga Wagga. I know it well.
We all die in the end.
And No Jude I'm still Here, cheeky Blighter. I'M only 80.
I 'm on here every day.
And well done Ann for the Info. (As Usual)
Heres a pic of him --->

http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/australian-actor-and-war-veteran-bill-kerr-dies-aged-92-20140829-10a7v7.html

Thanks AnnC....


RIP Bill the actor <3

jude:)

I remember him from 'Hancock's Half Hour'.

We had the record of 'Life Gets Tedious'.

I think it was by somebody called Carson Robinson.

Wasn't Bill Kerr in the programme 'Flying Doctor' on the radio?

I remember him on the radio. He often started his patter "Once upon a time there were two Chinese - now.look how many there are".

They don't (daren't) write them like that any more.

Happydays

No, Lady S, only knew him off the radio.........Ann C has provided more than I know....

Return to Australia and later life[edit]

Kerr returned to Australia in 1979 and settled in Perth, Western Australia. Now concentrating on character roles, he played a number of serious roles in Australian films, including Peter Weir's films Gallipoli (1981) and The Year of Living Dangerously (1982).[8] He also worked on the Australian stage during the 1980s, in musicals such as My Fair Lady, where he received excellent reviews as Alfred Doolittle. Kerr has thrice played real-life Australian military personalities, appearing as bomber pilot Micky Martin in The Dam Busters (1955), as General John Monash in the TV mini-series Anzacs (1985) and as General Harry Chauvel in the film The Lighthorsemen (1986). In addition to his serious roles, he also continued to appear in comedies including the film The Coca-Cola Kid in 1985 and in 2001, he appeared in the Australian comedy Let's Get Skase.

Kerr also appeared in Glenview High and the 1998 television comedy series Minty. In 1980 he played the part of Douglas Kennedy in the soap opera The Young Doctors.

Kerr has also been involved in documentaries, providing the narration for No Survivor - The Mysterious Loss of HMAS Sydney Nine Network Australia (1995), Malice or Mutiny for the ABC Australia 2003 and Animal X Natural Mystery Unit series for Discovery, released in the USA as Animal X (TV series), TV2 Norway and many others.





Walk of Honour plaque
On 26 January 2011 Kerr received the 2011 Walk of Honour in Wagga Wagga, which was unveiled on 17 May 2011.[1][9]

Death[edit]

On 29 August 2014 Kerr died in his family home in Perth.[10]

Early life and British career[edit]

He was born into a performing arts family in Cape Town, South Africa, but grew up in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia.[1] He began working as a child actor in Depression-era Australia. His first role was in one of Australia's first talking films, The Silence of Dean Maitland.

After serving in the Second World War, Kerr moved to Britain in 1947.[2] During the 1940s he was regularly featured in the BBC radio series Variety Bandbox on which he used the catchphrase "I'm only here for four minutes..."

In the 1950s he had a regular role as an Australian lodger in the BBC radio comedy series Hancock's Half Hour.[3] Initially sharper than Hancock's characterisation, it was developed into a more dim-witted character who became the butt of Hancock's jokes. Kerr's television appearances in Britain include a Doctor Who serial called The Enemy of the World (1968), with Patrick Troughton, and a long-running part in the early 1960s BBC-TV soap, Compact.

Kerr had much theatrical success in Britain, playing the Devil in the original West End production of Damn Yankees, directed by Bob Fosse, and Cole. Kerr appeared in a touring production of the play The Teahouse of the August Moon in 1956.[4] He also worked with Spike Milligan and appeared in Milligan and John Antrobus's stage play The Bed-Sitting Room,[5] which opened at the Mermaid Theatre on 31 January 1963.[3][6] A subsequent production opened on 3 May 1967 at the Saville Theatre, and "a cast containing an unusually high proportion of Australian actors including Bill Kerr and David Nettheim."[6] Then in 1972 he co-starred with Anthony Newley in the long-running Newley/Bricusse musical, The Good Old Bad Old Days. In 1975, Kerr took the part of Bluey Notts, described as "an Australian bookie's clerk, a crude racialist", in The Melting Pot. This was a sitcom written by Spike Milligan and Neil Shand, which was cancelled by the BBC after just one episode had been broadcast.[7] He also appeared in several British films, including The Dam Busters (1955) and The Wrong Arm of the Law (1963).

News about Bill Kerr, Australian Actor

bing.com/news

Bill Kerr, Australian actor and radio star, dies aged 92

BBC · 2 hours ago

Australian actor Bill Kerr, "the boy from Wagga Wagga" who became one of Tony Hancock's radio sidekicks in the 1950s, has died in Perth aged 92. Born in Cape Town in June 1922, he was raised in Australia and became a…

Bob ~ do you have any info about Bill, his parents etc....... I have Kerr rellies from Scotland (Midlothian) who went to Oz

It's Wagga Wagga, pronounced Wogga Wogga

Most people just call it Wagga....... I think it means "place of many crows"

RIp Bill

I got it via email from an Australian contact. Sharron,


he was a resident in hancocks half hour, for a while,
cant remember If he was the one that did the thing about "water in the well's gettin' lower n lower, cant take a bath fer a month, or mower"

Life gets tedious, don't it!

no Jude, Bill Kerr the actor

he was always the token Australian in films, along with Chips Rafferty

RIP, Bill

Where did you find out Bob?

I looked on the internet when you first posted and it wasn't even on there, it is now,

Is this Bill from Oz, the cheeky one????

yeah, Ann you is right,

tis Wagga Wagga

but its the way I heard it .....

RIP Bill <3

thought it was Wagga Wagga :-S