Bill Kenwright Biography

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Bill Kenwright CBE (born 4 September, 1945, in Liverpool, Merseyside, England) is an actor and producer.

He attended Liverpool Institute High School 1957 to 1964 and appeared in school productions (including Shylock in Merchant of Venice) on the stage in the Mount St. building (predecessor to LIPA. He was also treasurer of the Christian Union at school.

As a young man, he became an actor. He was not spectacularly successful, though he did hold down a role in Coronation Street for almost a year, as Gordon Clegg, from April 1968 to March 1969, after brief stints in other shows, such as The Villains and The Liver Birds. It is said that Gordon Clegg is the only role he would ever act again, out of love for Coronation Street and its cast.

Kenwright is now a successful theatrical producer, best known for the long-running West End hit Blood Brothers and the record breaking tour of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Other recent productions have included West End runs of Whistle Down The Wind at the Palace Theatre, Festen in London, on a UK tour and now on Broadway, The Big Life, Elmina's Kitchen, Scrooge - The Musical, The Night Of The Iguana, A Few Good Men, A Man For All Seasons alongside UK tours of Jesus Christ Superstar, Tommy, Whistle Down The Wind, Tell Me On A Sunday, Scrooge - The Musical and This Is Elvis.

He will produce the upcoming London revival of Cabaret at the Lyric Theatre in September 2006, starring Anna Maxwell Martin, James Dreyfus and Sheila Hancock.

In the year 2000 he was awarded the CBE for his services to film and theatre. He is currently linked with British actress Jenny Seagrove.

In 2004 he became Chairman of Everton, the football club he has supported all his life, succeeding Sir Phillip Carter in the role, who stepped down from his second stint as Everton Chairman, a position he had regained after Kenwright's takeover of the club in 1999.

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