Bill Kennedy

By Ralph Schiller 

When the “Adventures of Superman” was first telecast on American television in 1952 DC Comics, the producers of the series had less than one minute to command the attention of viewers who might change the channel in droves.  A narrator was hired to introduce the show and it was this deep, booming baritone voice who declared:

“Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound!”

[The crowd looks up and roars] 

“Look!  Up in the sky!  It’s a bird!  It’s a plane!  It’s Superman!”

[The narrator triumphantly agrees]

“Yes, it’s Superman, strange visitor from another planet who came to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men!  Superman, who can change the course of mighty rivers, bend steel in his bare hands, and who disguised as Clark Kent, mild mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper, fights a never-ending battle for truth, justice, and the American way! [pause] And now another exciting episode in “The Adventures of Superman”!”

That narrator was Bill Kennedy and the viewers were completely spellbound!  What was intended as a ‘kiddie’ series instead became a television juggernaut!

He was born Willard Kennedy in Cleveland Heights, Ohio and as a young man worked as a radio announcer for “The Detroit News” at station WWJ in Detroit, Michigan.  In 1941 ‘Bill’ Kennedy signed a contract with Warner Brothers studios where he was frequently cast as newspaper reporters, radio announcers, and news commentators.  He was a Mountie with Errol Flynn in “Northern Pursuit” (1943), and both he and future ‘Inspector Henderson’ Robert Shayne had good roles as young romantic suitors in “Mr. Skeffington” (1944) with Bette Davis and Claude Rains. 

After the war Kennedy left Warner Bros. to free-lance and starred as the Mountie hero of the Universal serial “The Royal Mounted Rides Again” (1945).  Because of his tall stature (six feet, three inches) Kennedy was often cast as villains in ‘B’ westerns including five with ‘Whip Wilson, four with Johnny Mack Brown, three with Don ‘Red’ Barry plus many others starring Tim Holt, Rex Allen, Rod Cameron, and George Montgomery plus television western series.

In “News Hounds” (1947) Bill Kennedy played a crusading newspaper reporter very much like Clark Kent solving a murder case with the help of Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall and the Bowery Boys, and returned as a ship’s officer in 1953 when the boys crossed the Atlantic in “Loose In London”.  Surprisingly in 1949, the screen’s first ‘Lois Lane’, Noel Neill made “Forgotten Women” an offbeat woman’s picture from little Monogram studios with both Bill Kennedy and Robert Shayne.  Kennedy made sixty-eight motion pictures and in his last film played a sheriff pursuing Jack Palance in “I Died a Thousand Times” (1955). 

On the “Adventures of Superman” Bill Kennedy gave a riveting performance on camera as a radio announcer in the classic black & white Season One episode, “Crime Wave” in 1953, and his handsome good looks were filmed in color for the 1954 Season Four Episode “Joey” where he played a racetrack announcer!

In 1956 Bill Kennedy returned to local television in Detroit, Michigan to host “Bill Kennedy At The Movies” for the next 27 years.  A visibly older, chain-smoking Kennedy wearing thick, horn-rim glasses, introduced a motion picture every week to local television audiences.  During movie breaks he would eloquently speak of Hollywood’s golden era and the many great stars and directors he worked with in his film career.  In the early 1970’s Bill Kennedy’s movie show (with a two and a half-hour running time) was syndicated in both Chicago (where I saw it) and Cleveland after Kaiser Broadcasting purchased TV stations in those markets. 

Kennedy retired to Palm Beach, Florida in 1983 after contracting emphysema, and his great clear voice was silenced in 1997 with his death at age 88.  It was also that same, sober and soaring voice that helped to successfully launch the “Adventures of Superman” into television history.  We are proud to induct Bill Kennedy into the George Reeves Hall of Fame.