Occupation Actor and musician Spouse Clare Kennedy (m. 1996) Role Actor | Name Kevin Kennedy Years active 1983–present | |
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Full Name Kevin Patrick Williams Children Grace Kennedy, Ryan Williams, Katie May Kennedy Albums Present Kennedy, The Robot Licked Me Back EP Similar People Bill Tarmey, Betty Driver, Sue Nicholls, Brenda Edwards, John Savident | ||
Kevin kennedy as bryan adams on stars in their eyes 2002
Kevin Kennedy (born Kevin Patrick Williams, 4 September 1961) is an English actor and musician, best known for playing the character Curly Watts for 20 years in ITV's long-running television soap opera Coronation Street.
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Early life
Kennedy was born in Wythenshawe, Manchester, Lancashire. He attended St. Paul's Catholic High School and was a keen member of Manchester Youth Theatre. Kennedy later studied drama at Manchester Polytechnic.
Career
Kennedy was in the band the Paris Valentinos with Johnny Marr and Andy Rourke.
Between 1983 until 2003, Kennedy played the character of Norman Watts (known as Curly Watts) in the Coronation Street television series. He started as a paperboy, then a dustman and later an assistant manager at a supermarket. The character had two marriages which produced two children - one from each wife. After a short break from acting while recovering from alcohol addiction in 2000, he released an album, Bulldog Nation, with his band the Bunch of Thieves, on the RCA Records label. The single peaked at Number 70 in the UK Singles Chart.
He returned to Coronation Street a few months later, before being written out in September 2003. In an interview in 2009, Kennedy said that he would consider a return to the show and it was later confirmed that he would film scenes for its 50th anniversary DVD. However, more than a decade after his departure, he has yet to make a return. Kennedy was the writer and producer of the 2005 television series Spanish Capers. A second series was recorded in 2006-07 for Sky Television plc.
In 2009, Kennedy played the part of ageing hippie "Pop" in the touring production of Ben Elton's We Will Rock You before joining the cast of the West End London production in 2010. In 2015 Kennedy was asked to be involved with the launch of the world's third largest cruise liner "Anthem of the Seas" appearing in a West End production of "We Will Rock You".
He also appeared in the 2009 "Scent from Heaven?" advert for Daz, as part of the company's "Cleaner Close" campaign. In 2010, Kennedy, along with several other Coronation Street stars, contributed to Trisha Ward's album Rogues, Angels, Heroes and Fools, recorded for the 50th anniversary of the TV series. In 2017 he played Graham Ollerinshaw, a David Bowie tribute act, in an episode of the BBC's Holby City.
He is a supporter of Manchester City. He serves as director of Kennedy St recovery services, a social enterprise, with his wife Clare, the Brighton-based organisation's CEO, offering free telephone advice, signposting to local recovery services, home based detox, various recovery focused programs and a professional advice & coaching service to the business sector.