Dates

• Existence: 8 November 1927 - 11 March 2018

Biography

Kenneth Dodd was an English comedian, singer and actor.

Kenneth Arthur Dodd was born on 8 November 1927 in a former farmhouse in Knotty Ash, Liverpool. At fourteen years old, he left school to work for his father as a coal merchant. As a teenager he became interested in comedy and show business and his father bought him a ventriloquist doll.

Ken started to combine his work with amateur performances at the local orphanage and various community functions. In 1945 he began working as a travelling salesman, which allowed him to travel to comedy clubs in his spare time. In 1954 Ken made his professional debut as Professor Yaffle Chucklebutty, Operatic Tenor and Sausage Knotter at the Nottingham Empire and from that point he never stop performing and touring the variety theatres across the UK.

Ken worked mainly as a solo comedian, making appearances in theatres, music halls, pantomime, television and radio. He also recorded several songs, many of which reached the UK top 40 chart.

Although he specialised in comedy acts he was also a serious student of comedy and history, and was interested in Sigmund Freud and Henri Bergson's analysis of humour and in a few occasions, he appeared in dramatic theatre and television roles including Shakespeare, Doctor Who and Alice in Wonderland.

Ken received many awards throughout his long career in show business including an O.B.E in 1982 and a Knighthood in 2017. He was also made Top Variety Entertainer in 1993, Freeman of the City of Liverpool in 2001, honorary fellowship of Liverpool John Moores University in 1997 and received an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters from the University of Chester in 2009 and a Doctorate of Letters at Liverpool Hope University in 2010. Ken was also inducted into the Grand Order of Water Rats, an exclusive show business fraternity and in 2016, he was awarded the Aardman Slapstick Comedy Legend Award in recognition of his lifetime's contribution to the world of comedy.

Ken died on 11 March 2018 in the home he was born and raised, aged 90.

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