Kenneth Williams

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Kenneth Charles Williams (22 February 1926 – 15 April 1988) was an English actor best known for his comedies but also as a raconteur and diarist in later life.

He was one of the main cast in 26 of the 31 Carry On films and appeared in numerous British television shows and radio comedies, including series with Tony Hancock and Kenneth Horne.

He served in the Royal Engineers during WWII, where he first became interested in becoming an entertainer.

After a brief stint in repertory theatre as a serious actor, he returned to comedy and gained national recognition in Hancock's Half Hour, appearing throughout the radio series' run.

He maintained his popularity in Carry On Films throughout the 1960s and 1970s, as well as continuing to appear in public view with chat shows and other television productions. Despite being praised in the entertainment industry, Williams suffered from depression and found it difficult to cope with his homosexuality.

He kept a series of diaries throughout his life that attracted posthumous acclaim.

Early life and education

Kenneth Williams was born in Bingfield Street, Kings Cross, London, on February 22, 1926. Charles George Williams, who ran a hairdressers in the Kings Cross area, and Louisa Alexandra (née Morgan), who worked in the salon, were both his parents. According to Barry Took, Williams' biographer, Charles was a Methodist with "a hat on loosening morals and effeminacy." Charles thought the theatre was immoral and disgraceful, but his son aspirations to be involved in the field from an early age. Williams lived with his parents in a house above his father's barber shop on 57 Marchmont Street, Bloomsbury, between 1935 and 1956.

Williams said in his diaries that he was of Welsh descent because of his parents' surnames (Williams was later found correct; both his parents were born in Wales). Alice Patricia "Pat," a half-sister who was born in 1923, before Louie knew him three years before Kenneth was born. He was educated at The Lynch Stanley Central Council School, a state-owned Central Council school in Camden Town, north London, and went from a draughtsman to a mapmaker. He was evacuated to Bicester, and the home of a bachelor veterinary surgeon, when the Blitz interrupted his apprenticeship. It was his first encounter with an educated, middle-class life, and he loved it. With a fresh, vowel-elongated accent, he returned to London. He was called up to the British Army in 1944, aged 18, when he was in 1944. He became a sapper in the Royal Engineers Survey Section, doing much the same jobs as a soldier. When the war came to an end, he was in Ceylon and he opted to join the Combined Services Entertainment Unit, which was based on revue. Stanley Baxter, Peter Vaughan, Peter Nichols, and John Schlesinger were among the unit's surviving members.

Personal life and death

After drinking carbon tetrachloride that had been stored in a cough-mixture bottle, Kenneth's father, Charlie Williams, was admitted to the hospital on October 14th, 1962. Kenneth, who had never got along with his father, refused to visit him. Charlie died the following day, and Kenneth went on stage in the West End an hour after being told the news. A finding of accidental death by carbon tetrachloride poisoning was delivered in the coroner's court. Kenneth was convinced that his father died as a result of bad luck, but that could not have been unintentional. When it emerged that Scotland Yard had a file on him relating to his father's death, Williams was refused a visa to the United States; the suspicion being that he had poisoned his father.

Williams has often said he was asexual and celibate, and his diaries confirm his assertions — from his early teens to early teens. He lived alone for the majority of his adult life, had no close friends other than his mother, and no formal intimate relationships. His diaries include references to unconsummated or barely consummated homosexual dalliances, which he describes as "traditional subjects" or "tradiola." He befriended gay playwright Joe Orton, who wrote the role of Inspector Truscott in Loot (1965), and spent holidays in Morocco with Orton and his partner, Kenneth Halliwell. Stanley Baxter, Gordon Jackson, and his partner Rona Anderson, Sheila Hancock, and Maggie Smith and her playwright husband, Beverley Cross were among her close friends. Williams was also a fan of Carry On's Barbara Windsor, Bernard Bress bill, Peter Butterworth, Kenneth Connor, Hattie Jacques, and Joan Sims.

Williams lived in a string of small rented flats in central London from the mid-1950s to today. Louisa, his father's uncle, died after his father's death and then moved to his apartment. His last home was a flat on Osnaburgh Street, Bloomsbury, which has since been demolished.

Williams rarely revealed specifics of his personal life, but he did speak openly to Owen Spencer-Thomas about his loneliness, despondency, and a sense of disappointment in two half-hour documentary series on BBC Radio London in 1977. He died in his apartment on April 15th. "Oh, what's the bloody point?" His last words, which were recorded in his diary. An overdose of barbiturates was the cause of death. Because it was not possible to determine whether his death was suicide or an accident, an inquest delivered an open verdict. His diaries reveal that he had often had suicidal thoughts, and that some of his earliest diaries show recurring thoughts that there was no point in living. Williams did not commit suicide, but died from an accidental overdose, according to his authorised biography. Without discussing it with his doctor, the actor doubled his dose of antacid. That, as well as the addition of narcotics, is the most common cause of death. He had a stash of painkilling tablets, but it has been argued that he would have taken more of them if he had been planning suicide. He was cremated in East Finchley Cemetery, and his remains were scattered in the memorial gardens. Williams left an estate worth just under £540,000 (equivalent to £1,540,418 in 2021).

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Career

Williams's professional career began in 1948 in repertory theatre. Failure to become a serious dramatic actor disappointed him, but his potential as a comic performer gave him his break when he was spotted playing the Dauphin in Bernard Shaw's St Joan in the West End, in 1954 by radio producer Dennis Main Wilson. Main Wilson was casting Hancock's Half Hour, a radio series starring Tony Hancock. Playing mostly funny voice roles, Williams stayed in the series almost to the end, five years later. His nasal, whiny, camp-cockney inflections (epitomised in his "Stop messing about ... !" catchphrase) became popular with listeners. Despite the success and recognition the show brought him, Williams considered theatre, film and television to be superior forms of entertainment. In 1955 he appeared in Orson Welles's London stage production Moby Dick—Rehearsed. The pair fell out after Williams became annoyed with Welles's habit of repeatedly changing the script.

When Hancock steered his show away from what he considered gimmicks and silly voices, Williams found he had less to do. Tiring of this reduced status, he joined Kenneth Horne in Beyond Our Ken (1958–64), and its sequel, Round the Horne (1965–68). His roles in Round the Horne included Rambling Syd Rumpo, the eccentric folk singer; Dr Chou En Ginsberg, MA (failed), Oriental criminal mastermind; J. Peasemold Gruntfuttock, telephone heavy breather and dirty old man; and Sandy of the camp couple Julian and Sandy (Julian was played by Hugh Paddick). Their double act was characterised by double entendres and Polari, the homosexual argot.

Williams also appeared in West End revues including Share My Lettuce with Maggie Smith, written by Bamber Gascoigne, and Pieces of Eight with Fenella Fielding. The latter included material specially written for him by Peter Cook, then a student at Pembroke College, Cambridge. Cook's "One Leg Too Few" and "Interesting Facts" were part of the show and became routines in his own performances. Williams's last revue, in 1961, was One Over The Eight at the Duke of York's Theatre, with Sheila Hancock.

Williams worked regularly in British film during the late 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, mainly in the Carry On series (1958–78) with its double entendre humour; and appeared in the series more than any other actor. The films were commercially successful but Williams claimed the cast were poorly paid. In his diaries, Williams wrote that he earned more in a St Ivel advert than for any Carry On film, although he was still earning the average Briton's annual salary in a month for the latter. He often privately criticised and "dripped vitriol" upon the films, considering them beneath him, even though he continued to appear in them. This became the case with many of the films and shows in which he appeared. He was quick to find fault with his own work, and also that of others. Despite this, he spoke fondly of the Carry Ons in interviews. Peter Rogers, producer of the series, recollected, "Kenneth was worth taking care of because, while he cost very little—£5,000 a film, he made a great deal of money for the franchise."

Williams was a regular on the BBC Radio impromptu-speaking panel game Just a Minute from its second season in 1968 until his death. He frequently got into arguments with host Nicholas Parsons and other guests on the show. (Russell Davies, editor of The Kenneth Williams Letters, explains that Williams's "famous tirades on the programme occurred when his desire to entertain was fuelled by his annoyance.") He was also remembered for such phrases as "I've come all the way from Great Portland Street" (i.e. one block away) and "They shouldn't have women on the show!" (directed at Sheila Hancock, Aimi MacDonald and others). He once talked for almost a minute about a supposed Austrian psychiatrist called Heinrich Swartzberg, correctly guessing that the show's creator, Ian Messiter, had just made the name up.

On television, he co-hosted his own TV variety series on BBC2 with the Young Generation entitled Meanwhile, On BBC2, which ran for 10 episodes from 17 April 1971. He was a frequent contributor to the 1973–74 revival of What's My Line?, hosted the weekly entertainment show International Cabaret and was a regular reader on the children's storytelling series Jackanory on BBC1, hosting 69 episodes. He also narrated and provided all of the voices for the BBC children's cartoon Willo the Wisp (1981).

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