David Kernan

David Stanley Kernan (23 June 1938 – 26 December 2023) was an English actor born in East Ham, London, to Joseph and Lily Kernan. His father left the family shortly after his birth, and at age four Kernan went to live with his grandmother in Oxford. He began singing as a child in the choir at the University Church of St Mary the Virgin, eventually becoming head chorister. He attended Portchester School in Bournemouth but left at fifteen, and at his mother's direction began training as a chef before turning toward the stage.

Kernan's theatrical career began in 1957 when he worked as an assistant stage manager at the Theatre Royal in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. He subsequently moved to London, where he supported himself as a shop assistant while pursuing performance work. His West End debut came in the chorus of Where's Charley? at the Palace Theatre, which opened on 20 February 1958 and ran for 404 performances. He used the earnings from that engagement to fund lessons in acting, dancing, and singing. He returned to the West End as the Hon. Ernest Woolley in Our Man Crichton at the Shaftesbury Theatre, which premiered on 22 December 1964 and ran for 208 performances. In 1970 he appeared in the original London production of 1776, and from 1975 to 1976 he played Count Malcolm in the original London production of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music.

Kernan became particularly associated with the work of Sondheim, and in 1977 he brought that association to Broadway as a member of the original cast of the revue Side by Side by Sondheim. The production earned him a Tony Award nomination for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical. He was originally from London, England.

His television career began when he sang alongside Millicent Martin on the BBC current affairs series Tonight. Producer Ned Sherrin subsequently cast both performers on the satirical series That Was the Week That Was, which ran from 1962 to 1963. In the early 1970s Kernan appeared in the period drama Upstairs, Downstairs, playing Captain Charles Hammond, the young lover of Lady Marjorie Bellamy, in the episode "Magic Casements." He also appeared in two episodes of The Avengers in the 1960s, as an amateur radio enthusiast and chess player in "Never, Never Say Die" and as a shoe designer in "Quick Quick, Slow Death." He co-starred as Mr. Kodaly opposite Robin Ellis in a television adaptation of She Loves Me, and made two appearances on the BBC variety program The Good Old Days in the 1970s and 1980s.

His film credits included Gaolbreak (1962), Mix Me a Person (1962), Farewell Performance (1963), Zulu (1964), Otley (1968), Up the Chastity Belt (1971), and Carry On Abroad (1972). In 2019 he published an autobiography titled From East Ham to Broadway. Kernan entered into a civil partnership with Stuart Forsyth in 2008 and the two married in 2014. He suffered from Alzheimer's disease and died on 26 December 2023 at the age of 85, survived by his husband.