Kenneth D. Peach Sr. was born in El Reno, Indian Territory (in what is now Oklahoma).
He worked with composite processes, miniatures, montages and matte shots for Tiffany Pictures for two years, then joined Fred Jackman's technical effects department at Warner Bros.- First National for three years.
In 1933 he began a long association with producer Hal Roach of Hal Roach Studios, where he shot several Laurel and Hardy films (Dirty Work, Sons of the Desert).
They had two sons, cinematographer Kenneth Peach, Jr., and Martin Peach, who worked as a key grip on the Disney television series, Wizards of Waverly Place and a daughter Pauline A. Reynolds.
He and his wife Pauline (who died on December 16, 2000) are buried together in the Lincoln Terrace section of Forest Lawn-Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.