---
name: "William Roache"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/william-roache"
fi1m_id: "william-roache"
imdb_id: "nm0730075"
tmdb_id: 1215177
wikidata_id: "Q8017608"
roles: ["Actor"]
born: "25 April 1932"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
average_as: "actor"
average_over: 1
updated: "2026-10-07T11:33:49.950625+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# William Roache

## Identity

William Roache

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/william-roache
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** william-roache
- **IMDb ID:** nm0730075
- **TMDB ID:** 1215177
- **Wikidata ID:** Q8017608
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Roache, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q8017608, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0730075/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1215177

Actor. Born 25 April 1932 in Basford, Nottinghamshire, England, UK.

## Details

- **Work:** Actor
- **Born:** 25 April 1932, Basford, Nottinghamshire, England, UK
- **Also known as:** Bill Roache
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Roache, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q8017608, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0730075/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1215177

## Streaming the US now

- **Apple TV:** [*Coronation Street*](https://film.one/tv/coronation-street.md) (74)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Biography

William Roache, also credited as Bill Roache, is an English actor. He has played Ken Barlow in the ITV soap opera *Coronation Street* continuously since the series began on 9 December 1960.

Born on 25 April 1932 in Basford, Nottinghamshire, Roache served as a captain in the Royal Welch Fusiliers before entering acting in the late 1950s. He appeared in minor film and television roles and was cast as Ken Barlow after being spotted performing in a Granada Television play.

Roache is the longest-serving cast member of *Coronation Street* and holds the Guinness World Record for the longest-serving television star in a continuous role. He has also received an MBE and an OBE.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org.*

## On Fi1m (1)

- *Coronation Street* (1960), Fi1m 74, as Ken Barlow — [page](https://film.one/tv/coronation-street.md)

## Complete filmography (10)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *We Love the Monkees* (2012), Actor
- *That Sunday Night Show* (2011), series, Actor
- *Rewind The 60s* (2010), series, Actor
- *Drama Trails* (2010), series, Actor
- *Coronation Street: The First 25 Years* (1985), as Ken Barlow (Archive)
- *Emmerdale* (1972), series, as Ken Barlow
- *His and Hers* (1961), as Reporter
- *The Bulldog Breed* (1960), as Space Centre Operator (uncredited)
- *Coronation Street* (1960), series, as Ken Barlow — Fi1m 74, [page](https://film.one/tv/coronation-street.md)
- *Behind the Mask* (1958), as Young Doctor (uncredited)

## Gallery

- ![taken at the opening of Four Miles from Manchester; Tony Warren's Coronation Street exhibition at Salford Museum & Art Gallery](https://film.one/media/person/6777515/gallery-44ed403a9aa0.jpg) taken at the opening of Four Miles from Manchester; Tony Warren's Coronation Street exhibition at Salford Museum & Art Gallery — KeithJustKeith, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6b/William_Roache_2017.jpg/1280px-William_Roache_2017.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Bill Roache posing as a Ken Barlow waxwork at Madame Tussauds in Blackpool, Lancashire - 2018](https://film.one/media/person/6777515/gallery-fe9c86e45011.jpg) Bill Roache posing as a Ken Barlow waxwork at Madame Tussauds in Blackpool, Lancashire - 2018 — Raintheone, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Ken_Barlow_2.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Bill Roache posing as a Ken Barlow waxwork at Madame Tussauds in Blackpool, Lancashire - 2018](https://film.one/media/person/6777515/gallery-e1a0f5fdcd4b.jpg) Bill Roache posing as a Ken Barlow waxwork at Madame Tussauds in Blackpool, Lancashire - 2018 — Raintheone, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3c/Ken_Barlow_3.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Michael Lewis and William Roache with the Ringlemere cup (2012)](https://film.one/media/person/6777515/gallery-93665b934bef.jpg) Michael Lewis and William Roache with the Ringlemere cup (2012) — Portable Antiquities Scheme from London, England, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ed/Michael_and_Bill_Roach_and_Ringlemere_%287549200582%29.jpg/1280px-Michael_and_Bill_Roach_and_Ringlemere_%287549200582%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![William Roache](https://film.one/media/person/6777515/gallery-967ea9d3778c.jpg) William Roache — Image via TMDB
- ![Secretary of State Nadine Dorries visits the set of Coronation Street at ITV Studios in Manchester. (2021)](https://film.one/media/person/6777515/gallery-3e42c6731fad.jpg) Secretary of State Nadine Dorries visits the set of Coronation Street at ITV Studios in Manchester. (2021) — Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/09/William_Roache_%282021%29.jpg/1280px-William_Roache_%282021%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![William Roache](https://film.one/media/person/6777515/gallery-bf9358f3cf98.jpg) William Roache — Mikey, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/William_Roache_Cropped.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)

## Awards

### Other awards — 1 won

- Officer of the Order of the British Empire 2022: Officer of the Order of the British Empire (won)

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/william-roache