Bill Kerr

Acting

Bill Kerr

Born — Died

1922-06-10 — 2014-08-28

Place of birth

Cape Town, South Africa

Known for

Acting

Credits

65 titles

​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.   William Henry Kerr (10 June 1922 – 28 August 2014) was a British and Australian film and television actor. He was born into a performing arts family in Cape Town, South Africa, but grew up in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia. He began working as a child actor in depression era Australia, taking his first major role in The Silence of Dean Maitland, one of Australia's first talking films. After serving in the Second World War, Kerr moved to England to further his acting career, and during the 1940s he was regularly featured in the BBC radio series Variety Bandbox. His trademark was his catch phrase "I'm only here for 4 minutes..." In the 195…

Known for

Doctor Who poster
7.9

The adventures of The Doctor, a time-traveling humanoid alien known as a Time Lord. He explores the universe in his TARDIS, a sentient time-traveling spaceship. Its exterior appears as a blue British police box, which was a common sight in Britain in 1963 when the series first aired. Along with a succession of companions, The Doctor faces a variety of foes while working to save civilizations, help ordinary people, and right many wrongs.

Doctor Who

1963

No Hiding Place poster
4.8

No Hiding Place is a British television series that was produced at Wembley Studios by Associated-Rediffusion for the ITV network between 16 September 1959 and 22 June 1967. It was the sequel to the series Murder Bag and Crime Sheet, all starring Raymond Francis as Detective Superintendent, later Detective Chief Superintendent Tom Lockhart.

No Hiding Place

1959

Compact poster
5.0

Compact was a British television soap opera shown by the BBC between 1962 and 1965. The series was created by Hazel Adair and Peter Ling, who together went on to devise Crossroads. In contrast to the kitchen sink realism of Coronation Street, Compact was a distinctly middle-class serial, set in the more "sophisticated" arena of magazine publishing. An early "avarice" soap, it took the viewer into the business workplace, and aligned the professional lives of the characters with more personal storylines. The show was scheduled for broadcast on Tuesdays and Thursdays, thus avoiding a clash with ITV's Coronation Street on Mondays and Wednesdays. When Compact began, the editor was a woman, Joanne Minster, yet it was not long before she was replaced by Ian Harmon, the son of the magazine's owner. Despite being largely criticised by reviewers, Compact was popular with the general public, and in 1964 a regular omnibus edition was introduced, broadcast on Sundays. Morris Barry, a some-time actor and BBC director – he directed several Doctor Who stories in the 1960s – took over as producer and was given a brief to spice the series up in view of the criticism it had received from the national press. But the BBC, never comfortable with the concept of soap opera, quietly dropped the series in 1965.

Compact

1962

Hancock's Half Hour poster
7.4

Hancock's Half Hour is a BBC television comedy series of the 1950s and 60s written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. The series starred Tony Hancock with Sid James. The final series, renamed simply Hancock, starred Hancock alone. Comedian Tony Hancock starred in the show, playing an exaggerated and much poorer version of his own character and lifestyle, Anthony Aloysius St John Hancock, a down-at-heel comedian living at the dilapidated 23 Railway Cuttings in East Cheam. The series was influential in the development of the situation comedy, with its move away from radio variety towards a focus on character development.

Hancock's Half Hour

1956

Peter Pan poster
7.1

In stifling Edwardian London, Wendy Darling mesmerizes her brothers every night with bedtime tales of swordplay, swashbuckling and the fearsome Captain Hook. But the children become the heroes of an even greater story, when Peter Pan flies into their nursery one night and leads them over moonlit rooftops through a galaxy of stars and to the lush jungles of Neverland.

Peter Pan

2003

Return to Eden poster
6.9

Rich but insecure heiress Stephanie Harper believes she's found true love with tennis pro Greg Marsden, but after the nuptials, Greg promptly begins an affair with Stephanie’s best friend, Jilly Stewart. Whilst on their honeymoon, Greg pushes Stephanie into a crocodile-infested swamp, and he and Jilly watch as she is apparently mauled to death. However, Stephanie miraculously survives and travels to an island clinic where she undergoes extensive plastic surgery. Using her new identity, Tara Welles, and fortune, she plots revenge on Greg and Jilly, aiming to take back what's rightfully hers.

Return to Eden

1983

Film credits

2000s · 3 titles

1980s · 20 titles

The Year of Living Dangerously poster
6.7

A young Australian reporter tries to navigate the political turmoil of Indonesia during the rule of President Sukarno with the help of a diminutive photographer.

The Year of Living Dangerously

1982

Gallipoli poster
7.1

Two Australian sprinters face the brutal realities of war when they are sent to fight in the Gallipoli campaign in the Ottoman Empire during World War I.

Gallipoli

1981

The Lighthorsemen poster
6.1

In 1917 when the British forces are bogged down in front of the Turkish and German lines in Palestine they rely on the Australian light horse regiment to break the deadlock.

The Lighthorsemen

1987

Razorback poster
5.9

In the Australian outback a vicious wild boar kills and causes havoc to a small community.

Razorback

1984

The Coca-Cola Kid poster
5.4

An eccentric marketing guru visits a Coca-Cola subsidiary in Australia to try and increase market penetration. He finds zero penetration in a valley owned by an old man who makes his own soft drinks, and visits the valley to see why. After "the Kid's" persistence is tested he's given a tour of the man's plant, and they begin talking of a joint venture. Things get more complicated when the Coca-Cola man begins falling in love with his temporary secretary, who seems to have connections to the valley.

The Coca-Cola Kid

1985

The Pirate Movie poster
5.3

Left behind by her friends on a boat trip, contemporary teen Mabel takes pursuit but is knocked unconscious on an island, where she has a dream involving pirates, sisters, a modern major-general, romance, and adventure.

The Pirate Movie

1982

Dusty poster
6.6

The eponymous Dusty is an appropriately named dingo, or wild dog. Roaming the fertile fields of Australia, Dusty is captured as a puppy. Though dingoes are normally averse to human companionship, Dusty attaches himself to an old, worn-out shepherd, played by Bill Kerr. The dog gives Kerr a reason for living, and vice versa. Be sure to have plenty of Kleenex handy for some of the mistier passages of Dusty.

Dusty

1983

The Settlement poster
8.0

Down-on-their-luck drifters Kearney and Martin wander into the small town of Cedar Creek looking to swindle a few pounds from the locals. After a not-too-friendly reception, the pair decide to move into an abandoned shack on the outskirts of town. They are soon joined in their new home by Joycie, another town outcast with a shady past. While the three manage to start a rather happy life together, they soon find that others in the town strongly disapprove of their living arrangements.

The Settlement

1984

The Christmas Visitor poster
8.0

In the Australian outback, a small boy determines to see that a nasty, curmudgeonly miser gets the Christmas spirit.

The Christmas Visitor

1987

Mortuary Academy poster
3.8

"Police Academy" clone, about some nerds who inherit an academy for morticians, which is run by a corrupt closet necropheliac. Of course, the most incompetent students possible are accepted, so that the academy will fail, and all sorts of wacky hijinks ensue.

Mortuary Academy

1988

Vigil poster
6.5

Toss lives on a sheep farm with her father in New Zealand. When Toss's father dies in an accident, Ethan, an itinerant hunter, wanders onto the family farm and is given a job by her grandfather. Toss's fairly innocent relationship with Ethan is severed when he forms a relationship with her mother.

Vigil

1984

Kokoda Crescent poster
7.0

The grandson of a war veteran is found dead from an overdose of heroin. He and his old army buddies swing into action and stake out the drug dealer, only to discover a web of police corruption surrounding the drug dealing. Given police complicity in the matter, they take the law into their own hands.

Kokoda Crescent

1989

Tony Hancock: From East Cheam to Earls Court poster
NR

Ex-colleagues reflect on the comic genius and sometimes difficult character of Tony Hancock.

Tony Hancock: From East Cheam to Earls Court

1985

Deadline poster
6.2

A journalist sets out to report on a minor earthquake in the Australian outback, and finds that the tremor was a result of a small nuclear explosion - part of an extortion threat that has the government fearing nuclear blackmail. With the help of local reporters, and despite the harassment of the security agencies, he sets out to avert the crisis.

Deadline

1982

Running from the Guns poster
5.5

Dave (Jon Blake) and his buddy Peter (Mark Hembrow) are chased by a gang of thugs when they pick up the wrong box from a Melbourne warehouse in this comedy thriller. Instead of toys, the box contains a substantial amount of cash intended to be used in a money-laundering operation.

Running from the Guns

1987

Great Expectations poster
2.0

Orphan Pip discovers through lawyer Mr. Jaggers that a mysterious benefactor wishes to ensure that he becomes a gentleman. Reunited with his childhood patron, Miss Havisham, and his first love, the beautiful but emotionally cold Estella, he discovers that the elderly spinster has gone mad from having been left at the altar as a young woman, and has made her charge into a warped, unfeeling heartbreaker.

Great Expectations

1983

Double Sculls poster
9.0

A man tries to rehabilitate his alcoholic friend by entering them both into the Australian national rowing championships.

Double Sculls

1986

Save the Lady poster
8.0

A ragtag group of kids set out to save derelict steam ferry Lady Hope from destruction.

Save the Lady

1981

Rob Roy poster
6.0

The tale of Scottish legend Rob Roy MacGregor is retold in beautiful animation. Rob Roy borrows money from the local nobility to buy cattle to increase his status in life. When the money is stolen, he must use the fighting skills he's tried to avoid in order to escape the powerful men who believe he stole the money. Rob Roy begins by fighting for his own survival, as well as his family's, but pretty soon he is fighting for the people of Scotland. Heroism, courage, and sacrifice are at the center of this stirring tale. Rob Roy is a worthy addition to any film library.

Rob Roy

1987

Platypus Cove poster
10.0

After saving a drowning boy's life, a fifteen-year-old orphan is taken aboard by the family as a deckhand.

Platypus Cove

1986

1970s · 3 titles

1960s · 8 titles

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum poster
6.1

A wily slave must unite a virgin courtesan and his young smitten master to earn his freedom.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

1966

Doctor in Distress poster
6.3

"Doctor in Distress" is the fifth of the seven films in the "Doctor" series, and focuses on Sir Lancelot Spratt, Simon Sparrow's old teacher and sometimes nemesis. When the eternal bachelor Sir Lancelot injures his back and falls in love with his physiotherapist Iris Marchant, he becomes very distressed and turns to Simon for help. Simon, who now is a senior doctor at fictional Hampden Cross Hospital and hopelessly in love with aspiring actress Delia, sends him to a nature cure clinic in a vain attempt to help him lose weight, but Sir Lancelot can't get Iris off his mind and has her followed, first by a private investigator and eventually by himself. When he finally proposes, she rejects him and marries an old army major, which distresses Sir Lancelot even more.

Doctor in Distress

1963

The Wrong Arm of the Law poster
6.7

The crooks in London know how it works. No one carries guns and no one resists the police. Then a new gang appears that go one better. They dress as police and steal from the crooks. This upsets the natural order of the police/criminal relationship and the police and the crooks join forces to catch the IPOs (Impersonating Police Officers), including an armoured car robbery in which the police must help the gangs to set a trap.

The Wrong Arm of the Law

1963

Doctor Who: The Enemy of the World poster
7.9

On Earth in 2018, the Doctor and his companions are enmeshed in a deadly web of intrigue thanks to his uncanny resemblance to the scientist/politician Salamander. He is hailed as the "shopkeeper of the world" for his efforts to relieve global famine, but why do his rivals keep disappearing? How can he predict so many natural disasters? The Doctor must expose Salamander's schemes before he takes over the world.

Doctor Who: The Enemy of the World

1968

Doctor in Clover poster
5.8

Doctor in Clover is another 'Doctor' movie, but this time Leslie Phillips is the main doctor in the story, looking for love and romance from the hospital nurses, much to the annoyance of the main Administrator (James Robertson Justice) who wants his doctors to be 100% focussed on the job. Numerous antics follow, with Phillips getting Justice fixed up with the new prim-and-proper Matron (Joan Sims) and his attempted failures to lure the hospital's beauty, the physiotherapist.

Doctor in Clover

1966

A Pair of Briefs poster
6.2

She's new in chambers, and he's a troublemaker. But what 'is' the true status of the old lady's wartime marriage, and can the two young legal minds find the answer?

A Pair of Briefs

1962

A Pair of Briefs poster
6.2

She's new in chambers, and he's a troublemaker. But what 'is' the true status of the old lady's wartime marriage, and can the two young legal minds find the answer?

A Pair of Briefs

1962

No artwork available
NR

Spike stars with Bob Todd, Bill Kerr, Graham Stark, Valentine Dyall, and Sheree Winton & a final TV outing for moustachioed 'token Italian' comedy actor Mario Fabrizi, who died 18 months later, aged just 38.

Spike Milligan: A Series of Unrelated Incidents at Current Market Value

1961

1950s · 8 titles

The Dam Busters poster
6.9

The story of the conception of a new British weapon for smashing the German dams in the Ruhr industrial complex and the execution of the raid by 617 Squadron 'The Dam Busters'.

The Dam Busters

1955

The Night My Number Came Up poster
6.9

British Air Marshal Hardie is attending a party in Hong Kong when he hears of a dream, told by a pilot, in which Hardie's flight to Tokyo on a small Dakota propeller plane crashes on a Japanese beach. Hardie dismisses the dream as pure fantasy, but while he is flying to Tokyo the next day, circumstances start changing to align with the pilot's vivid vision, and it looks like the dream disaster may become a reality.

The Night My Number Came Up

1955

The Captain's Table poster
6.0

A captain is promoted by his company from tramp steamers to their flagship passenger liner. Although he is a thoroughly competent sailor ready to take charge of such a ship, he is less prepared for the social duties his new position involves, not least the way he in which becomes the target for all the unattached women on board.

The Captain's Table

1959

Penny Points to Paradise poster
4.4

When Harry and Spike visit Bristol to spend the winnings from Harry's latest Pools win, the boys are soon targeted by a gang of local counterfeiters.

Penny Points to Paradise

1951

The Shiralee poster
5.1

An Australian "swagman" finds his wife with another man, so he takes the daughter, Buster, with him. On the road together, going from town to town and from farm to farm, father and daughter explore new depths of understanding and bonding.

The Shiralee

1957

Port of Escape poster
6.0

Two sailors dock in London in search of a good time. But when one of them fatally stabs a man during a scuffle in a bar, the pair flee the scene, commandeer a boat and take the three women on board hostage as they try to outrun the law.

Port of Escape

1956

My Death Is a Mockery poster
6.7

A fisherman cannot make a decent living from his trawler so he decides to turn his hand to smuggling.

My Death Is a Mockery

1952

Appointment in London poster
6.5

Wing-commander Tim Mason leads a squadron of Lancaster bombers on almost nightly raids from England. Having flown eighty-seven missions he will shortly be retiring from flying, but the strain is showing. He tries to make sure his men concentrate only on their job and so keeps women away from the base, but then he himself meets naval officer Eve Canyon.

Appointment in London

1953

1930s · 2 titles

Series credits

Doctor Who poster
7.9

The adventures of The Doctor, a time-traveling humanoid alien known as a Time Lord. He explores the universe in his TARDIS, a sentient time-traveling spaceship. Its exterior appears as a blue British police box, which was a common sight in Britain in 1963 when the series first aired. Along with a succession of companions, The Doctor faces a variety of foes while working to save civilizations, help ordinary people, and right many wrongs.

Doctor Who

1963

No Hiding Place poster
4.8

No Hiding Place is a British television series that was produced at Wembley Studios by Associated-Rediffusion for the ITV network between 16 September 1959 and 22 June 1967. It was the sequel to the series Murder Bag and Crime Sheet, all starring Raymond Francis as Detective Superintendent, later Detective Chief Superintendent Tom Lockhart.

No Hiding Place

1959

Compact poster
5.0

Compact was a British television soap opera shown by the BBC between 1962 and 1965. The series was created by Hazel Adair and Peter Ling, who together went on to devise Crossroads. In contrast to the kitchen sink realism of Coronation Street, Compact was a distinctly middle-class serial, set in the more "sophisticated" arena of magazine publishing. An early "avarice" soap, it took the viewer into the business workplace, and aligned the professional lives of the characters with more personal storylines. The show was scheduled for broadcast on Tuesdays and Thursdays, thus avoiding a clash with ITV's Coronation Street on Mondays and Wednesdays. When Compact began, the editor was a woman, Joanne Minster, yet it was not long before she was replaced by Ian Harmon, the son of the magazine's owner. Despite being largely criticised by reviewers, Compact was popular with the general public, and in 1964 a regular omnibus edition was introduced, broadcast on Sundays. Morris Barry, a some-time actor and BBC director – he directed several Doctor Who stories in the 1960s – took over as producer and was given a brief to spice the series up in view of the criticism it had received from the national press. But the BBC, never comfortable with the concept of soap opera, quietly dropped the series in 1965.

Compact

1962

Hancock's Half Hour poster
7.4

Hancock's Half Hour is a BBC television comedy series of the 1950s and 60s written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. The series starred Tony Hancock with Sid James. The final series, renamed simply Hancock, starred Hancock alone. Comedian Tony Hancock starred in the show, playing an exaggerated and much poorer version of his own character and lifestyle, Anthony Aloysius St John Hancock, a down-at-heel comedian living at the dilapidated 23 Railway Cuttings in East Cheam. The series was influential in the development of the situation comedy, with its move away from radio variety towards a focus on character development.

Hancock's Half Hour

1956

Return to Eden poster
6.9

Rich but insecure heiress Stephanie Harper believes she's found true love with tennis pro Greg Marsden, but after the nuptials, Greg promptly begins an affair with Stephanie’s best friend, Jilly Stewart. Whilst on their honeymoon, Greg pushes Stephanie into a crocodile-infested swamp, and he and Jilly watch as she is apparently mauled to death. However, Stephanie miraculously survives and travels to an island clinic where she undergoes extensive plastic surgery. Using her new identity, Tara Welles, and fortune, she plots revenge on Greg and Jilly, aiming to take back what's rightfully hers.

Return to Eden

1983

No artwork available
9.0

Garry Halliday is a British television series for children that ran on the BBC from 1959 to 1962. The show starred Terence Longdon as airman Garry Halliday. The episodes were closely based on the books by Justin Blake.

Garry Halliday

1959

Snowy poster
8.0

The family lives of those working on Australia's Snowy Mountains dam in the 1950s.

Snowy

1993

Father, Dear Father poster
7.0

The hugely successful British television series Father Dear Father is transplanted to Australia when novelist Patrick Glover and his assistant Nanny trek down under to write the great Australian crime novel, and end up supervising Patrick's boisterous young nieces while their own father is abroad.

Father, Dear Father

1978

Citizen James poster
7.7

At and around Soho cafe Charlie's Nosh Bar, Sidney Balmoral James ('Sid') is on the lookout for any get-rich-quick scheme. He is helped by William Montmorency Beaumont Kerr ('Billy the Kerr') and quite often frustrated by local bookmaker Albert Welshman. Meanwhile, Sid's long-suffering girlfriend Liz has been waiting for seven years for Sid to set the date.

Citizen James

1960

Ship to Shore poster
5.4

Ship to Shore is an Australian children's television series devised by David Rapsey and written by Glenda Hambly, John Rapsey, Mary Morris, Everett de Roche, Jon Stephens and others. The program was shown on the ABC and Channel 9 in Australia, on YTV in Canada, and briefly on Nickelodeon in the United States.

Ship to Shore

1993

The New Adventures of Black Beauty poster
8.1

The New Adventures of Black Beauty was the title of a television drama series produced in the early 1990s.

The New Adventures of Black Beauty

1990

Changi poster
7.7

Six young Australians go to war, full of confidence and bravado. They land in Singapore in 1942, just in time for surrender. With 15,000 others, they are marched off to Changi prison camp. Together, the six boys survive three and a half years of incarceration. Almost sixty years later, the six prepare to get together for what may be their last hurrah.

Changi

2001

No artwork available
NR

Glenview High is an Australian television drama series produced by the Reg Grundy Organisation for the Seven Network between 1977 and 1978. The show's title is a reference to the high school Glenview Park Secondary School located in Cambridge, Ontario.

Glenview High

1977

Anzacs poster
6.8

Anzacs was a 1985 5-part Australian miniseries set in World War I. The series follows the lives of a group of young Australian men who enlist in the 8th Battalion of the First Australian Imperial Force in 1914, fighting first at Gallipoli in 1915, and then on the Western Front for the remainder of the war.

Anzacs

1985

No artwork available
NR

Comedy following Albert Curfew, a man for whom unemployability appears to be no object whatsoever. Stars Donald Churchill, Norman Bird and Dilys Laye.

It's Not Me - It's Them!

1965

No artwork available
10.0

The Private War of Lucinda Smith is a 1990 Australian mini series about an Australian chorus girl living in London.

The Private War of Lucinda Smith

1991

A Fortunate Life poster
5.0

At eight years old, an impoverished Bert Facey was forced to start the backbreaking, dawn-to-dusk life of a farm labourer. Unschooled, his father dead, abandoned by his mother, by the age of twenty he had survived the rigours of pioneering the harsh Australian bush and the slaughter of the bloody WWI campaign at Gallipoli.

A Fortunate Life

1986

The River Kings poster
7.5

Filmed on South Australia's glorious River Murray, this television mini-series is set during the 1920s and tells of the story of a runaway who escapes to the river to work on a paddle-boat steamer and his friendship with an old salt captain played by Bill Kerr. Based on an original novel by Max Fatchen.

The River Kings

1991

Animal X poster
NR

Animal X is an Australian made documentary television series that aired in more than 120 countries. It began in 1997 with its first series of thirteen half-hour episodes. In 2002, Discovery Channel in the U.S. co-produced the 2nd series of 13 half-hour episodes with the creators of the series, Australia's Storyteller Productions, for Animal Planet. At this point Animal X episodes generally had 3 stories, with one exception: "The Skookum Cast". This was a joint expedition between Animal X and the BFRO which discovered the Skookum Cast, said to be an imprint of the body of a bigfoot.

Animal X

1997