Bill Kerr, Australian actor and radio star, dies aged 92

He made his first film appearance in 1933's Harmony Row, in which he was billed as "Willie" Kerr.

Australian actor Bill Kerr, "the boy from Wagga Wagga" who became one of Tony Hancock's radio sidekicks in the 1950s, has died in Perth aged 92.

Born in Cape Town in June 1922, he was raised in Australia and became a radio and vaudeville star before moving to the UK in 1947 to further his career.

Appearances in Hancock's Half Hour, The Dam Busters and Doctor Who followed, as did a role in 1960s TV drama Compact. Returning to Australia in 1979, he had a key role in 1981 film Gallipoli. His voice is the first to be heard in Peter Weir's World War One epic, exhorting its young sprinter hero to run "as fast as a leopard".

He went on to be seen in TV mini-series Anzacs, horror film Razorback and the 2003 version of Peter Pan. According to family members, Kerr was watching television at his home in western Australia when he passed away.

Kerr enjoyed his greatest success in the 1950s and 1960s, appearing alongside such comedy greats as Sid James, Spike Milligan, Kenneth Williams and Peter Sellers. His laconic Australian drawl saw him often cast as a slow-witted simpleton who could serve as the butt of his co-stars' jokes.