Gordon Gilbert Kennedy (born 22 February 1958) is a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

actor, presenter and narrator. He starred in the

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

sketch show Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches" or, "skits", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. While the form developed and became popular in ...

'' Absolutely'', and appeared in

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

drama series ''

Robin Hood Robin Hood is a legendary noble outlaw, heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature, theatre, and cinema. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions o ...

'' and '' Red Cap''.

Biography

Kennedy grew up in

Tranent Tranent is a town in East Lothian (formerly Haddingtonshire), in the south-east of Scotland. Tranent lies 6 miles from the boundary of Edinburgh, and 9.1 miles from the city centre. It lies south of the A1 road (Great Britain), A1 road that r ...

East Lothian East Lothian (; ; ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, as well as a Counties of Scotland, historic county, registration county and Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area. The county was called Haddingtonshire until 1921. In ...

, and attended

George Watson's College George Watson's College is a co-educational Private schools in the United Kingdom, private day school in Scotland, situated on Colinton Road, in the Merchiston area of Edinburgh. It was first established as a Scottish education in the eighteenth ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

. He then studied at the Scottish School of PE at

Jordanhill College Jordanhill College of Education was a higher education college in Jordanhill, Glasgow, Scotland. It opened as a teacher training college in 1921. The college merged with the University of Strathclyde in 1993, becoming its Faculty of Educati ...

(now part of the

University of Strathclyde The University of Strathclyde () is a public research university located in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1796 as the Andersonian Institute, it is Glasgow's second-oldest university, having received its royal charter in 1964 as the first techn ...

). In 2015 he was announced as the first patron of The Fraser Centre Community Trust in Tranent. He also studied for one year at Scott Sutherland School of Architecture, Garthdee, Aberdeen around 1984.

Career

He first rose to prominence in the sketch show '' Absolutely'' and "progressed downwards to co-host" the 'original'

National Lottery National Lottery may refer to: *National Lottery (Ireland), the state lottery of Ireland *National Lottery (United Kingdom), the lottery franchise in the United Kingdom *South African National Lottery, established in 2000 *A number of countries con ...

show, alongside

Anthea Turner Anthea Turner (born 25 May 1960) is an English television presenter. She was a host of ''Blue Peter'' from 1992 until 1994, and of ''GMTV'' from 1994 until 1996. Early life Turner was born in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, and educated at the ...

, as well as appearing as himself in a

Punt and Dennis Punt and Dennis are a comedy double act consisting of Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis. The duo first met at the Footlights while studying at Cambridge University in the early 1980s. Initially they were an amateur double act performing at various venu ...

spoof of Bugs entitled Plugs as the antagonist who rigs the lottery results to win £100 million on an eight-week rollover. He has appeared in several dramas, including the role of Sergeant Bruce Hornsby in the

drama '' Red Cap''. He has also appeared in the

BBC Scotland BBC Scotland is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Scotland. Its headquarters are in Glasgow, employing approximately 1,250 staff as of 2017, to produce 15,000 hours of television and radio programming per year. BBC Scotla ...

soap ''

River City ''River City'' is a Scottish television soap opera created by Stephen Greenhorn which has been broadcast on BBC One Scotland since September 2002. Since 2019, the show has aired episodes a day earlier on the new BBC Scotland channel. Set in ...

''. From 2006 to 2009 he starred as

Little John Little John is a companion of Robin Hood who serves as his chief lieutenant and second-in-command of the Merry Men. He is one of only a handful of consistently named characters who relate to Robin Hood and one of the two oldest Merry Men, alo ...

in all three series of the BBC production of ''

''. From 2010 to 2012, Kennedy narrated the British edition of ''

Kitchen Nightmares ''Kitchen Nightmares'', known in the UK as ''Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares USA'', is an American reality television series originally broadcast on Fox, in which chef Gordon Ramsay is invited by the owners to spend a week with a failing restaurant ...

'' encompassing 26 episodes, replacing the US narrators J.V. Martin and Arthur Smith for the UK.

Sports

Alongside his acting career, Kennedy is a rugby coach with London Wasps. He has also appeared many times on '' Test Match Sofa''. His elder brother Euan Kennedy played rugby union for Scotland winning 4 caps between 1983 and 1984. Gordon Kennedy has also completed 10km marathons with a best time of 65.34 minutes when he was in his mid 20s.

Filmography

Film

Television

Theatre

* ''

Rocky Horror Show ''The Rocky Horror Show'' is a Musical theatre, musical with music, lyrics and book by Richard O'Brien. A humorous tribute to various B movies associated with the Science fiction film, science fiction and Horror film, horror genres from the 193 ...

'' (1990/91) – Eddie/Dr Scott. * ''Full House'' (2002) - Tim. * ''The Hairless Diva'' (2002) - Mr Smith. * ''The Corstorphine Road Nativity'' (2009) – Narrator. * ''The James Plays'' (2014) – Murdac Stewart/Livingston/John * ''The Audience'' (2015) -

Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. Previously, he was Chancellor of the Ex ...

Radio

* ''The Absolutely Radio Show''. * ''Mordrin McDonald: 21st-Century Wizard''. * ''Mrs Sidhu Investigates - Mrs Sidhu's Deadly Highland Game''. * ''Jeremy Hardy speaks to the nation.''

Awards and nominations

References

External links

*
Gordon Kennedy Interview at the BBC website

o
Absolutely.biz
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kennedy, Gordon 1958 births Comedians from Glasgow Living people People educated at George Watson's College People from Tranent Scottish male television actors Scottish male comedians Scottish television presenters Scottish television personalities Scottish male radio actors Scottish male stage actors Scottish male film actors