Everton FC chair, Bill Kenwright, passes away
Bill Kenwright, theatre impressario and chairman of Everton FC, has died.
He was born on September 4, 1945, and had an early career as an actor, most notably as the Gordon Clegg character in Granada TV’s Coronation Street soap, introduced in 1968.
A boyhood Evertonian, he has been chairman of the club since 2004.
He was one of the UK’s most successful theatre producers, best known for the long-running West End hit Blood Brothers and the record-breaking UK tour of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
Other productions have included West End runs of Whistle Down the Wind at the Palace Theatre, Festen in London, on a UK tour and on Broadway, The Big Life, Elmina’s Kitchen, Scrooge – The Musical, The Night of the Iguana, A Few Good Men, A Man For All Seasons alongside UK tours of Jesus Christ Superstar, Tommy, Tell Me on a Sunday and This is Elvis.
He helped start the careers of many current West End theatre producers, including Mark Rubinstein and Marc Sinden. It has been estimated that he employed more actors in a year than any employer other than the BBC.
At Everton, he boasted he began his support in the ‘boys’ pen’ a notorious wire cage located on the Gwladys Street terracing, specifically for young fans.
He became the second largest shareholder in the club in 1999, when Peter Johnson sold his shareholding after the Football Association told to him sell his interests in either Tranmere Rovers or Everton. He became the largest stakeholder in the club in 2004.
He relinquished control of the club to current owner, Farhad Moshiri, in 2016.
Kenwright’s health has deteriorated over the past several years and he has attended fewer games. He has also been at loggerheads with a portion of the fanbase over his perceived running of the club and its lack of success, having not won a trophy since 1995.
Most recently, the club has survived two successive relegation fights and is currently the subject of a proposed takeover by US-based 777 Partners.
He was married to actress Anouska Hempel from 1978 to 1980 and has a daughter and two grandchildren from his relationship with the actress Virginia Stride. He had been in a long term relationship with the actress Jenny Seagrove.
In a statement the club said: “The club has lost a chairman, a leader, a friend, and an inspiration. The thoughts and prayers of everyone at Everton are with his partner Jenny Seagrove, his daughter Lucy Kenwright, grandchildren and everybody who knew and loved him.”
