Kenneth Williams

Kenneth Charles Williams (22 February 1926 – 15 April 1988) was an English actor of Welsh heritage. He was best known for his comedy roles and in later life as a raconteur and diarist. He was one of the main ensemble in 26 of the 31 ''Carry On'' films, and appeared in many British television programmes and radio comedies, including series with Tony Hancock and Kenneth Horne, as well as being a regular panellist on BBC Radio 4's comedy panel show '' Just a Minute'' from its second series in 1968 until his death 20 years later.

Williams grew up in Central London in a working-class family; he claimed his father spoke cockney. He served in the Royal Engineers during World War II, where he first became interested in becoming an entertainer. After a short spell in repertory theatre as a serious actor, he turned to comedy and achieved national fame in ''Hancock's Half Hour''. He sustained continued success throughout the 1960s and 1970s with his regular appearances in ''Carry On'' films, and subsequently kept himself in the public eye with chat shows and other television work.

Williams was fondly regarded in the entertainment industry; in private life, however, he suffered from depression. He kept a series of diaries throughout his life that achieved posthumous acclaim.

Early life and education

Kenneth Charles Williams was born on 22 February 1926 in Bingfield Street, Kings Cross, London. His parents were Charles George Williams, who managed a hairdressers in the Kings Cross area, and Louisa Alexandra (' Morgan), who worked in the salon. Charles was a Methodist who had "a hatred of loose morals and effeminacy", according to Barry Took, Williams's biographer. Charles thought the theatre immoral and effeminate, although his son aspired to be involved in the profession from an early age. Between 1935 and 1956, Williams lived with his parents in a flat above his father's barber shop at 57 Marchmont Street, Bloomsbury.

Williams stated in his diaries that he believed he was of Welsh extraction because of his parents' surnames (Williams was later proven correct; both his parents were born in Wales). Williams had a half-sister, Alice Patricia "Pat", born in 1923 before Louie had met Charlie Williams and three years before Kenneth was born. He was educated at The Lyulph Stanley Boys' Central Council School, a state-owned Central school, in Camden Town, north London and subsequently became apprenticed as a draughtsman to a mapmaker. His apprenticeship was interrupted by the Blitz, and he was evacuated to Bicester, and the home of a bachelor veterinary surgeon. It provided his first experience of an educated, middle-class life, and he loved it. He returned to London with a new, vowel-elongated accent. In 1944, aged 18, he was called up to the British Army. He became a sapper in the Royal Engineers Survey Section, doing much the same work that he did as a civilian. When the war ended he was in Ceylon and he opted to transfer to the Combined Services Entertainment Unit, which put on revue shows. While in that unit he met Stanley Baxter, Peter Vaughan, Peter Nichols and John Schlesinger.

Career

Early 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.

''Carry On'' films

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 year 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 On''s 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."

Radio and television shows

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).

Personal life and death

On 14 October 1962, Kenneth's father, Charlie Williams, was taken to hospital after drinking carbon tetrachloride that had been stored in a cough-mixture bottle. Kenneth, who had never got on well with his father, refused to visit him. Charlie died the following day and, an hour after being given the news, Kenneth went on stage in the West End. The coroner's court recorded a verdict of accidental death due to corrosive poisoning by carbon tetrachloride. Kenneth believed his father had committed suicide, because the circumstances leading to the poisoning seemed unlikely to have happened by bad luck. Williams was later denied a visa to the United States, when it emerged that Scotland Yard kept a file on him relating to his father's death – the suspicion being that he had poisoned his father.

Williams often said that he was asexual and celibate, and his diaries appear to substantiate his claims — at least from his early forties onwards. He lived alone all his adult life and had few close companions apart from his mother, and no significant romantic relationships. His diaries contain references to unconsummated or barely consummated homosexual dalliances, which he describes as "traditional matters" or "tradiola". He befriended gay playwright Joe Orton, who wrote the role of Inspector Truscott in '' Loot'' (1965) for him, and had holidays in Morocco with Orton and his lover, Kenneth Halliwell. Other close friends included Stanley Baxter, Gordon Jackson and his wife Rona Anderson, Sheila Hancock, and Maggie Smith and her playwright husband, Beverley Cross. Williams was also fond of fellow ''Carry On'' regulars Barbara Windsor, Peter Butterworth, Kenneth Connor, Hattie Jacques and Joan Sims.

From the mid-1950s, Williams lived in a succession of small rented flats in central London. After his father died, his mother Louisa lived near him, and then in the flat next to his. His last home was a flat on Osnaburgh Street, Bloomsbury (since demolished).

Williams rarely revealed details of his private life although, in two half-hour documentary programmes in 1977 on BBC Radio London entitled ''Carry On Kenneth'', he spoke openly to Owen Spencer-Thomas about his loneliness, despondency and sense of underachievement.
He died on 15 April 1988 in his flat. His last words, recorded in his diary, were "Oh, what's the bloody point?" and the cause of death was an overdose of barbiturates. An inquest recorded an open verdict, because it was not possible to establish whether his death was suicide or an accident. His diaries reveal that he had often had suicidal thoughts, and some of his earliest diaries record periodic feelings that there was no point in living. His authorised biography argues that Williams did not take his own life but died of an accidental overdose. The actor had doubled his dosage of antacid without discussing it with his doctor. That, combined with the mixture of medication, is the widely accepted cause of death. He had a stock of painkilling tablets and it is argued that he would have taken more of them if he had been intending suicide. He was cremated at East Finchley Cemetery

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