Actors - Graham Kennedy

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	Actors - Graham Kennedy

Graham Cyril Kennedy AO (15 February 1934-25 May 2005) was an Australian radio, television and film performer. Known in his heyday in the 1960s as "The King," he dominated the first 20 years of Australian television. He later rejected fame and publicity and spent his remaining years in seclusion.

Early life

Kennedy was born in Melbourne and grew up in suburban Balaclava. He was educated at Caulfield North Central School and then Melbourne High School. His parents divorced shortly before World War II, and he was raised by his grandmother. He left school early, working first as a news runner for the Australian Broadcasting Commission on their Radio Australia shortwave service.

After Kennedy's death, his friend and colleague John Mangos recorded that

:"... he would sometimes talk about the violent arguments between his parents, how he gravitated to his grandmother’s bosom, his two uncles (“one fought the Germans, the other fought the Japs”) and how one of them took liberties with the boy. Graham never resented him, claiming he equated it with affection."

Leaving the ABC, he moved to radio station 3UZ, initially in the record library and later as panel operator for popular radio personality "Nicky" (Cliff Nicholls, real name Clifford Whitta), his first mentor. Nicholls, who had been broadcasting since 1932, presented a hugely popular housewife's programme, as well as "Chum's Club" with his wife Nancy Lee. Nicky's typically Australian voice and his distinctive manner of deriding live-to-air advertisements made him the idol of listeners, and was a major influence on Kennedy, who would become famous for the using same approach on his own TV show.

Radio work

Nicholls put the teenager to air with him on 3UZ as his sidekick in 1950. After Nicholls' death in September 1956, Kennedy was then briefly partnered by "Happy Hammond".

By May 1957, Kennedy was appearing on television (see below), but also presented a 3AK morning radio program with Bert Newton in 1961-1962, which later originated from a studio built at Kennedy's home in Oliver's Hill, Frankston.

In 1970 he appeared on 3XY and in June to December 1975 he appeared on a 3LO drivetime program with Richard Coombe. He went to 3DB in September to November 1976 with Denis Scanlan.

Kennedy also recorded a series of eight thirty-minute radio comedies for the ABC under the title "Graham Kennedy's RS Playhouse", written by Gary Reilly and Tony Sattler and broadcast between 11 August and 23 September 1979. The "RS" in the title is from the surnames of Reilly and Sattler, but also has another connotation in Australian English.

These programmes included:

The Birthday Boy
Because He's My Brother
You Only Live Once
Sunday Morning Fever
The Chocolate Milkman
The Pawnbroker
Mad Jack's Dentist
The Good Morning Show

Reilly and Sattler, who wrote the successful television programs Kingswood Country and The Naked Vicar Show, have been compared to the English writing duo Galton and Simpson, best known for Hancock's Half Hour and Steptoe and Son.

Sattler and his wife, actress Noeline Brown, became close friends with Kennedy.

Kennedy was also involved in Sydney radio station 2Day FM, owning ten percent of the station when it launched in 1980, and from May 1981 presented a three-hour program of music and comedy on Sunday mornings.

Television work

In Melbourne Tonight (IMT)

When television came to Melbourne in 1957, Kennedy was chosen to present an evening show, In Melbourne Tonight or (IMT), for GTV-9 beginning on 6 May 1957. Only 23 years old, and with no knowledge or experience of television, he began a 40-year career, throughout which he held the title of the "King" of Australian television. Speaking of his TV career in later years , Kennedy said "I was terrified for forty years".

Kennedy was not GTV-9's first choice — they had planned to use either 3UZ personality John McMahon or 3DB's Dick Cranbourne. Producer Norman Spencer defied the wishes of the first sponsor (Philips) by choosing Kennedy. The programme's name had been intended to be The Late Show, but rival station HSV-7 beat them to that name by one week. Because he was presumed gay, particularly by his homophobic boss Frank Packer, who wanted him sacked for it, he faced a certain amount of hostility from senior management. As far as is publicly known Kennedy never had a relationship of any kind (his reported engagement to singer Lana Cantrell was a hoax). His true sexual orientation has never been explicitly confirmed in public, although following Kennedy's death radio personality Derryn Hinch claimed that he knew Kennedy to be gay and had met several of his male lovers.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Graham Kennedy ]

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