William Patrick "Bill" Roache MBE is an English actor. He has played Ken Barlow in the soap opera Coronation Street since its first episode on 9 December 1960. He is listed in the Guinness World Records as the longest-serving living television actor in a continuous role. First acting job with Unicorn Players at Princes Theatre Clacton in 1959 with John Kendall and Helen Blackwood among others. Summer season repertory. Roache was born in Basford, Nottinghamshire, the son of Hester Vera . A second daughter, Edwina, died aged 18 months after her birth on 26 April 1983 from acute bronchial pneumonia on 16 November 1984. In 1991, Roache won a libel action against The Sun, which had described him as boring and unpopular with his fellow Coronation Street stars. He was awarded £50,000 damages by the jury, the same amount that he had turned down in an out of court settlement offered by the newspaper before the case. As a result, he was liable for the £120,000 costs incurred. Roache sued his law firm for negligence in 1998, and was declared bankrupt in April 1999. Roache is a supporter of the Conservative Party. In 2007, as a guest for Daily Politics, he championed Sir John Major as Britain's greatest post-war prime minister. He backed disgraced ex-Conservative MP Neil Hamilton in the 1997 election against Martin Bell. Roache became patron of the Ilkeston-based production company Sustained Magic Ltd in 2006. Roache is a vegetarian because he "doesn't want animals being killed for him". He wrote about his interest in astrology in his biography, which he learned by taking a correspondence course from the Faculty of Astrological Studies. He said he had impressed members of the Coronation Street cast by the accuracy with which he read their astrological charts for them. Roache is a spiritualist and was photographed practising druid rituals in the 1970s. He predicted that the world would go through a fundamental change on 12 December 2012 and "move to a higher vibration". During an investigation and trial, Roache's character Ken Barlow was written out of Coronation Street. However following Roache's acquittal he resumed filming on Coronation Street in June 2014, and returned to the screen on 4 August of that year. Roache was awarded an MBE in the 2001 New Years Honours. In March 2007, he was awarded the Honorary degree of Doctor of Letters by the University of Chester in recognition of his contribution to television.
Spoke out in 1999 of his unhappiness on the sensationalism and violence needed to attract viewers in British soaps.
Is a dedicated druid, a kind of astronomy group which predict the fate of their lives by the turning of the moon.
Was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the British Soap Awards in 2000 after playing his role as Ken Barlow in highly watched British soap-drama "Coronation Street" for 40 years, after appearing in the very first episode on 9 December 1960.
He was awarded the M.B.E. in the 2001 Queens New Years Honors List for his services to television drama.
He is the longest serving, living television actor in a continuous role in the whole world! He is the longest serving soap actor in the world ever and as of 2017 still acting/appearing in the very same role (with approaching 4500 appearances), uninterruptedly since the first episode of the British soap opera Coronation Street was made and broadcast in 1960! Appeared and/or credited in an average of over 25 episodes per year of the soap Coronation Street for 57 years.
Was a contestant on Ant and Decs Gameshow Marathon, a part of ITVs 50th birthday celebrations.
Served in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers.
Father of Linus Roache and Vanya Roache (born 1967) by his first marriage and also father of Verity Elizabeth Roache (born 1981), Edwina Roache (born 1982, died 1984 of a virus) and James Roache (born William James Roache in 1986) from his second marriage.
Wife Sara Roache died suddenly and unexpectedly on 7th February 2009. She collapsed and never regained consciousness. She was 58.
Is one of 8 "Coronation Street" actors to win the Lifetime Achievement Award at the British Soap Awards. The others are Barbara Knox , Johnny Briggs , Elizabeth Dawn , Betty Driver , William Tarmey , Helen Worth and Anne Kirkbride.
He was played by his son James Roache in The Road to Coronation Street .
Everything that happens to us is being a result of what we have been in,previous lives.
If you think about something, you bring it about.
[on "Coronation Street" (1960) ] While I can do it and while they,want me, I will be there.
[on his 2013 trial] In these situations there are no winners, and I,think we should all be much kinder to ourselves. .
