Celebrity Traitors star Ross Kemp has been a mainstay on British television for decades, and is known for sporting the bald look but in his early days on screen, the EastEnders icon looked completely different
Ross Kemp is taking part in The Celebrity Traitors(Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC/Studio Lambert/Cody Burridge/BBC Creative)
Ross Kemp has been a mainstay on British television for decades and has appeared in some of the biggest screen staples. After arriving on screen in the late 1980s in various small appearances, he was in his late twenties landed what would become his signature role of hardman Grant Mitchell in BBC soap EastEnders.
As the son of beloved matriarch Peggy Mitchell (Barbara Windsor), Ross appeared on the programme from 1990 until 2005 and has continued to return for various spells ever since, the most recent of which aired earlier this year.
Away from EastEnders, Ross has become known for fronting a host of hard-hitting documentaries like Ross Kemp: Behind Basrs, Ross Kemp: Mafia and Britain, and also presents the BBC game show Bridge of Lies.
On Thursday evening, he will be seen as part of the star-studded lineup of The Celebrity Traitors, joining the likes of Coronation Street legend Julie Hesmondhalgh, Little Mix singer Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Love Island host Maya Jama amongst several others. As well as his illustrious TV career, Ross is also majorly recognisable for one other thing – his bald look.
The soap icon has sported the bald look for much of his time in the spotlight, but there was a brief time early on in his career that he actually boasted a full head of hair.
When Ross made his television debut in Emmerdale Farm, as it was known then, he played the part of Graham Lodsworth for a total of 32 episodes and sported a short brown look.
His scenes on the programme aired from December 1986 until February 1989 and his character came to Beckindale, as the village was known then prior to the infamous plane crash a few years later, in search of his biological mother Dolly Skilbeck.
Ross then went on to appear in an early episode of classic drama London’s Burning, where he took on the part of Liver Salts. By the time he arrived on Albert Square, Ross still had some hair but it was much shorter.
By the mid-1990,s Ross had opted for the clean-shaven look, and it has been that way ever since. He previously inisisted whilst he would like to have hair again, he would never go for a transplant or any kind of cosmetic surgery.
In an interview with The Times he said: ” “This is me. If you don’t like it, you know what you can do! I do try and make myself look presentable, which isn’t easy with this face. I look in the mirror and think: squashed sultana.
“Do I wish I had a head of hair? Course, but I’d never have hair implants, or plastic surgery to fix this bit under my chin. This is me. If you don’t like it, you know what you can do.”
When it comes to his latest stint as part of Claudia Winkleman’s hit game show, he admitted that he would quite like people to see him as someone other than his EastEnders alter ego.
He said: “I think if I’m able to stay or survive for a period of time, it would give people an opportunity to see that I’m not just Grant Mitchell or a man that goes around the world confronting people with guns.
“I think obviously there will be people that will only know me as Grant, and then people may have seen the documentaries, which are often quite brutal. I think people probably think that I don’t have any kind of sense of humour whatsoever, which hopefully will come.”
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