Philip Kerr was born April 9, 1940, in New York City. He attended secondary school at Westminster School in Simsbury, Connecticut, graduating in 1959. He then attended Harvard College, where he was a member of the Harvard Dramatic Club and won awards such as the McCord Prize for Artistic Achievement and the Leveritt House Art Prize. He graduated from Harvard in 1963. Following his time at Harvard, Kerr completed a one-year advanced course at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
In the next twenty years, Kerr's activities included teaching master classes in advanced scene study at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, Indiana State University, and the College of the Sequoias; serving as lecturer at the University of California at Santa Barbara and Webster College Conservatory and Visiting Professor of Theatre at Bennington College; and acting on Broadway as well as with off-Broadway institutions such as the Manhattan Theatre Club, Roundabout Theatre, and CSC Repertory Theatre.
Kerr joined the University of Michigan Department of Theatre and Drama faculty in 1984. In addition to teaching acting courses and directing productions, he was instrumental in the establishment of the Bachelor of Fine Arts program. In 1994, he was appointed Claribel Baird Halstead Collegiate Professor of Theatre. Professor Kerr retired in 2012. He was a member of many professional associations, such as the Actors' Equity Association, Screen Actors' Guild, Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, Society of American Fight Directors, and Dramatists' Guild.
From the guide to the Philip Kerr papers, 1984-2012, (Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan)
