Soap stars

IN a long and distinguished career, Bill Kenwright was many things to many people.To theatre-goers he was the impresario behind West End hits Blood Brothers and Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
Bill Kenwright lived with his long-term partner, actress Jenny SeagroveCredit: Rex
Bill as Gordon, left, on Corrie in 1969Credit: Rex Features
Bill directed West End hit Blood Brothers in 1983Credit: Donald Cooper
To football fans he was chairman of his beloved Everton FC for 19 years — and to soap fans Coronation Street’s Gordon Clegg, who appeared from 1968 to 1969 then popped up again until 2012.
But to all who knew him, his death on Monday, aged 78, from liver cancer was a bitter blow.
Bill lived with his long-term partner, actress Jenny Seagrove, 66, and had a daughter, Lucy, from a previous relationship.
Despite his fame he was an intensely private man and hated being interviewed.
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He said: “People don’t understand this about me because I shout my productions to the rooftops and love talking about Everton.”
He added: “I am very private, but can only talk in one way — though I don’t want to come across as a passionate buffoon.”
Liverpool born and bred, Bill got the acting bug after childhood trips to the city’s cinemas with is gran.
While he lived most of his adult life in London, he maintained a lifelong attachment to his home city and said “my past was what moulded me”.
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He added: “I don’t think I had an easy childhood. I was very shy, nervous and timid and we weren’t rich. In Everton player Dave Hickson I found a sort of guide — he taught me how to dare.
“From my family I had protection and comfort and, in Mum, a spirit that said I could do anything I wanted. I wanted to be Errol Flynn and I loved Alan Ladd in (1953 Western) Shane. I didn’t just want to be an actor, I wanted to be a film star.”
Already treading the boards at the Liverpool Playhouse at age 12, he left home at 17 to join a London youth theatre and in 1968 made his Corrie debut as teenager Gordon, who lived above the paper shop with his aunt and uncle.
But Bill shocked producers by leaving after just a year. His time in the soapland spotlight had led to him wanting to work behind the scenes.
Recalling the late Corrie veteran Pat Phoenix, who played Elsie Tanner, he said: “I remember Pat telling me on day one, ‘You’re a good-looking lad from Liverpool — and you’ve got no idea what will happen to you when you appear on that screen’.
Everton chairman Bill and owner Farhad Moshir unveil boss Frank Lampard in January 2022Credit: Getty
Bill as a star guest on pop show Lift Off, 1970Credit: Rex
“I was shocked. My character was the first teenager written into a soap to attract teenage viewers. It was an extraordinary situation and I really didn’t like it. That’s one of the reasons I left.”
Bill’s love of the West End drew him to producing and directing and his company, Bill Kenwright Ltd, is the world’s most prolific theatre production company in the world, bringing hundreds of productions to theatres across the planet.
A close collaborator of West End kings Sir Tim Rice and Lord Lloyd- Webber, Bill directed their hits Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Evita and Jesus Christ Superstar.
He was nominated for a London Theatre Critics’ Award for his work on West Side Story and a Tony Award for a Broadway run of Blood Brothers.
He also produced numerous films.
These included 2009 romcom Cheri, starring Michelle Pfeiffer, 2021 hit Heathers: The Musical, and this year’s comedy thriller The Kill Room, starring Uma Thurman and Samuel L. Jackson, plus Gemma Arterton crime drama The Critic.
In 2001 he won a CBE for services to film and theatre.
I was a timid child but I could go on my own to Goodison Park because I felt safe there. When Dave Hickson and that team ran out on to the pitch, I was in heaven with my gods.Bill Kenwright
But it was perhaps his first love, football, that inspired him most.
A director at Everton from 1989, he became club chairman in 2004 and remained so until his death.
The club shone a light into his lonely childhood.
He said: “I was more timid than shy but I could go on my own to Goodison as a kid because I felt safe there.
“When Dave Hickson and that team ran out on to the pitch I was in heaven with my gods. It gave me a feeling of absolute safety.”
He married Anouska Hempel, the actress turned society hotelier and interior designer, in 1978, only to divorce after less than a year.
There followed a long relationship with actress Virginia Stride, now 87, which produced daughter Lucy, now 45 and a successful TV producer with two children.
But his true love and partner for his last three decades was actress Jenny Seagrove who he met at the Liverpool Playhouse in 1993 when she was starring in Noel Coward play Present Laughter.
She said in 2017: “Bill’s a force of nature, larger than life.
“It’s a privilege to live with him. He’s got the biggest heart of anybody I’ve ever met. He’s made me a better person.”
She added: “I’ve made him feel safe, given him the confidence to dive off that high board.”
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A self-confessed workaholic, Bill was worth an estimated £33million — but lived for passion, rather than money and its trappings.
He said: “I never see myself retiring, not at all.”
Bill married and divorced Anouska Hempel – an actress turned society hotelierCredit: Rex
Bill said: ‘I was a timid child but I could go on my own to Goodison Park because I felt safe there’Credit: Handout More