Press & broadcasting / Film & TV
Bill Kennedy
1908–1997 · actor, television movie host
Former Warner Bros. actor who for 27 years hosted old movies for Detroit viewers on CKLW-TV and WKBD, famous for his sardonic Hollywood stories.
- Born
Cleveland, Ohio- Died
Palm Beach, Florida
aged 88- Birth name
- Willard Kennedy
- Also known as
- Bill Kennedy at the Movies
- Detroit years
- 1956–1983
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Bill Kennedy was born in Cleveland and became a Warner Bros. contract player in 1941, appearing in dozens of films through 1955, often as a policeman or detective, and supplying the opening narration for the Adventures of Superman television series. In 1956 he became the host of Bill Kennedy's Showtime on CKLW-TV, the Windsor, Ontario, station that served the Detroit market from across the river. Introducing classic Hollywood films, he mixed behind-the-scenes anecdotes from his own studio years with a dry, sometimes cutting commentary and took calls from viewers; he once introduced Dragonwyck as one of the most boring movies ever made. In 1969 he moved to Detroit's WKBD, Channel 50, where the program became Bill Kennedy at the Movies, a weekend fixture for Detroit film fans until he retired to Florida in 1983.
Highlights
- Warner Bros. contract actor, 1941–1955
- Opening narrator of Adventures of Superman
- Host of Bill Kennedy's Showtime on CKLW-TV Windsor–Detroit (1956–1969)
- Host of Bill Kennedy at the Movies on WKBD Detroit (1969–1983)