Gerard Kennedy, film and television actor best known from his leading roles in Hunter and Division 4, has died age 93.
Born in Western Australia in 1932, his father brought him to Sydney after separating from his mother. He was interested in space research but coming from a showbusiness family it was inevitable that he made his acting debut at age 15 in a Sydney production of Peter Pan. He did not think he would ever make a good actor so it would be another 15 years before he took to the stage again. He went on to various jobs including store man, wood cutter, telephone mechanic, taxi driver and bus conductor before joining amateur theatre in Brisbane and working as a set designer at QTQ9. He made early television appearances in ABC plays Plain Jane, Ashes To Ashes and Anonymous.
He then made a number of guest appearances in Crawford Productions‘ Homicide, which led to him gaining a role of enemy spy agent Kragg in Hunter. His popularity in the series soon upstaged that of the show’s title character, John Hunter played by Tony Ward, and Kragg was soon to change sides in support of Hunter.
When Ward decided to leave Hunter, producers opted to wrap up Hunter and re-cast Kennedy in a new series. He returned to screens as Senior Detective Frank Banner, the lead in Nine‘s suburban police drama Division 4.
Kennedy starred in 300 episodes of the series and over the duration featured on many magazine covers and won multiple Logie awards, including Best New Talent in 1969 and then Gold Logies in 1971 and 1972.
In 1974 he was granted leave from commitments with Division 4 to make a guest appearance in ABC’s Rush and to perform a rare musical number in Ted Hamilton’s Musical World.
After Division 4 ended in 1975, he featured in the Seven Network period drama Cash And Company and starred in its sequel, Tandarra.
Other credits included series King’s Men, Power Without Glory, Case For The Defence, Bellbird, Bluey and the telemovie Mama’s Gone A-hunting.
He starred in the big-budget mini-series Against The Wind before joining the cast of Skyways as airport manager Gary Doolan. Further guest roles included The Sullivans, 1915, The Last Outlaw, Bellamy, Coral Island, Cop Shop, Carson’s Law, A Country Practice, Five Mile Creek, Special Squad, Prisoner and Golden Pennies.
In 1986 he made a guest appearance in an early episode of The Flying Doctors as a returned serviceman suffering from AIDS. He later returned to the series on an ongoing basis as a different character.
In the 1990s he starred in multiple episodes of ABC’s Frontline and made guest appearances in Col’n Carpenter, Acropolis Now, Bligh, Boys From The Bush and Blue Heelers.
Following guest appearances in Pizza, Stingers, All Saints and Neighbours, he played the part of underworld figure Graham Kinniburgh in Underbelly.
His final TV credits included Conspiracy 365, The Saddle Club, City Homicide, Glitch and reprising the role of Kinniburgh for Fat Tony And Co.
As well as his many television credits, he also featured in movies Eliza Fraser, Newsfront, The Mango Tree, The Trial Of Ned Kelly, The Irishman, The Last Of The Knucklemen, Fatty Finn, The Lighthorsemen, Running From The Guns, Body Melt and Wolf Creek 2.
Gerard Kennedy is survived by daughter Chrisanya.
Source: TV Times, 23 September 1970, 23 September 1972. TV Week, 10 August 1968, 21 September 1974. On-Air: 25 Years Of TV In Queensland, Christopher Beck. IMDB, ABC.
