Dr Chris Kennedy was the founder of Lyons Dental. He was also a Writer, Film Director and Producer.
The title of Chris Kennedy’s second film – This Won’t Hurt a Bit – captures the essence of his remarkable life. Kennedy was a rare mix: a dentist with a very dry sense of humour, a down-to-earth manner, and a creative passion for writing and film making.
Our surgery was often filled with laughter. He took great delight in amusing our staff and patients, and saw humorous possibilities wherever he looked – including in making a film about his own profession, starring HG Nelson as a “dodgy dentist”, in the National Health Service in the UK. Kennedy brought a “this won’t hurt a bit” enthusiasm and “never-say-no” tenacity to everything he did, be it playing rugby league, golf or squash; convincing people to appear in his movies and support his next project; or organising family and friends to raft rivers and go on other numerous adventures.
Between taking special care of his patients and being a devoted husband and father of three, he not only wrote – but also directed and co-produced – four feature films, including Doing Time for Patsy Cline, which opened the Sydney Film Festival in 1998. Starring Miranda Otto, Richard Roxburgh and Matt Day, this story of a naïve lad from a remote Australian sheep farm who sets off to try and become a country and western singer in Nashville won many awards, including the Australian Writers Guild Award for Best Original Screenplay.
As well as This Won’t Hurt a Bit, in 1993, he made Glass, in 1989, and A Man’s Gotta Do, in 2003, which won the Montreal Film Festival’s Golden Zenith Award for Best Film from Oceania in 2004. For his 2010 novel, Made in Australia, he drew on his Irish heritage. The book tells the amusing tale of an overweight swimming coach who dreams of his son representing Australia at the Olympics Games and is set in both Australia and Ireland – “two great countries joined at the funny bone”.
Chris was working on a film script and another novel when he died suddenly, of a heart attack, at age 65. Chris was a man of enormous energy, a high achiever, who always found time for his family and many friends.
Christopher Joseph Kennedy was born on 21 August 1948 in Darlinghurst and grew up in Drummoyne. He was a promising Rugby League player and die hard Balmain Tigers supporter. Chris served for two years as a Dental Officer with the Air Force in Wagga Wagga, before moving too the UK to practice dentistry and travel Europe.
In 1978 he returned to Sydney to pursue his writing and dentistry and founded Lyons Dental soon after. He carried out volunteer dental work in the Philippines and East Timor and, more recently, with indigenous communities in the Northern Territory. Married for 30 years with three children, Chris was also a quintessential family man.
Chris is survived by his father Joe, wife Kathy, children Patrick, Katie and Bernadette, sister Anne, brothers Mark, Tim and Martin, and their families.