Bill Kenwright, Everton’s chairman for the past 19 years who was also one of the UK’s most successful theatre impresarios, has died aged 78.
Kenwright was diagnosed with cancer in 2015 and was recently in intensive care after complications during surgery to remove a tumour from his liver.
Everton said this month that he had returned home and was expected to make a “lengthy but complete” recovery. The club announced on Tuesday that Kenwright had died.
“Everton Football Club is in mourning after the death of chairman Bill Kenwright CBE, who passed away peacefully last night aged 78, surrounded by his family and loved ones,” a statement said. The club said it had lost “a chairman, a leader, a friend, and an inspiration”.
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Kenwright was an actor and musician from Liverpool who became one of the UK’s leading producers, staging musicals such as Blood Brothers and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
In a career spanning six decades, Kenwright produced more than 500 West End, Broadway, UK touring and international theatre productions, films and music albums.
Kenwright, who began his entertainment career as an actor in 1967, was responsible for some of the largest and most-watched stage shows in the last 50 years of UK theatre. Previous reports estimated that at one point he employed more actors in a year than any employer other than the BBC.
His other productions included West End runs of Whistle Down the Wind, The Big Life, Scrooge – the Musical, Cabaret, A Few Good Men, Jesus Christ Superstar, Tommy, Tell Me on a Sunday and This is Elvis.
Kenwright was the owner of Theatre Royal Windsor, and recently acquired The Other Palace in central London.
Among his recent theatre productions were the award-winning Heathers the Musical and Rob Madge’s multi-award-winning My Son’s a Queer (But What Can You Do?).
Recent film productions included The Kill Room starring Uma Thurman and Samuel L Jackson, and Patrick Marber’s The Critic.
Over the course of his career Kenwright also picked up four Tony Awards for the transfers of A Doll’s House and Medea to Broadway, and was awarded a CBE in the 2001 new year honours list for services to film and theatre.
As an actor, he starred as Gordon Clegg in Coronation Street, and also appeared in shows including Dream Team and England, My England. He also had his own record label, Bill Kenwright Records.
A boyhood Everton fan, he joined the club’s board in 1989 and led the consortium that bought out the former owner Peter Johnson 10 years later.
Kenwright became Everton chairman in 2004 but his time in charge was not a success, with the club enduring the longest trophy drought in its history and several stadium projects collapsing on his watch.
In 2016, after a lengthy search for new investment, Kenwright sold the majority of his stake to Farhad Moshiri, who allowed him to remain as chairman. Moshiri solved Everton’s stadium issue, with an impressive arena under construction on Liverpool’s waterfront, but has overseen a tumultuous period on and off the pitch.
Kenwright had not attended a game at Goodison Park since 3 January amid protests over Everton’s decline under Moshiri and his board.
Everton said Kenwright had been their longest-serving chairman for more than a century and had “led the club through a period of unprecedented change in English football”.
Liverpool city council said in a statement: “Extremely sad news. Bill Kenwright was a true scouse powerhouse and passionate advocate of our city. What a life! What a legacy. In the arts and sport. Our thoughts are with everyone at Everton FC and Bill’s family.”
Dan Meis, architect of the new Everton stadium, said: “So very sad to hear the news. Whatever your views are of the man, he loved the club deeply and Bramley Moore would never have happened without him, full stop.
“He fought for the site, the design, and the hiring of an American architect. I hope in time that will be appreciated.”
Among those who paid tribute to Kenwright was Sir Ian McKellen, who wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter): “Like many grateful actors I am in debt to Bill Kenwright for employment. We were young together, when he was in Coronation Street and I was dipping a toe into Shaftesbury Avenue.
“Since then, I have admired the resilient way in which he encouraged theatre to thrive in London and in the regions. Whether it was yet another tour of that wonderful musical ‘Blood Brothers’ or sponsoring the Peter Hall Company in the classics.”
McKellen added that “Bill relished gossip and loved to reminisce. He seemed to have known everyone in the business and to care about them. Yet every chat would veer round to his equal passion – Everton football.
“The city that gave us the Beatles and two major football teams also bred a unique impresario. Whether the West End lights will be turned off in his memory, certainly our business will be dimmer now he has gone.”
Julian Clary said he would be “forever grateful” to Kenwright for giving him the chance to play “the Emcee” in Cabaret. “After the first night he said to me ‘You’re so brave … so brave!”’ Clary posted on X.
