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.
The acting bug bit Kenneth Williams when, as a student, his English teacher suggested he try out for a school play. He found that he enjoyed it tremendously, but when he raised the possibility at home of becoming an actor, his father forbade it. Williams was eventually sent to art school in London in 1941. In 1944 he was drafted into the army, and although posted to the Royal Engineers, he managed to land a job in the Combined Services Entertainment unit, where he got a chance to act in shows that were put on to entertain the troops, and even designed the posters that advertised the shows.
After his discharge from the army he began to work as a professional actor, and traveled the country in repertory companies. It was in a production of "Saint Joan", where he played the Dauphin, that a radio producer saw him and hired him to do voice characterizations on a popular radio comedy show, "Hancock's Half Hour". He also appeared in the Kenneth Horne-starring radio series Beyond Our Ken and its Spiritual Successor Round the Horne in which his characters were 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).
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| Paddick, Williams and Horne |
Their double act was characterised by double entendres and Polari, the homosexual argot. 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.
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| The Carry On team. |
His penchant for wild, off-the-wall characters led to his being hired by the producers of the "Carry On" comedy series, where he performed in 26 entries in the long-running series. 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. He was also a regular on the BBC Radio impromptu-speaking panel game Just a Minute from its second season in 1968 until his death.
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| Just A Minute |
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).
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).
Williams was a clown by choice, and an extremely gifted clown at that, who only appeared not to take himself seriously. He was a self-educated man with a passion for reading, mainly biography and history. He studied gothic calligraphy and illuminated manuscripts, and enjoyed Brahms and Schumann. However, behind the scenes, Williams was facing problems in his personal life. Upon realizing as a young man that he was homosexual, he spent most of his life resenting and hating himself, due to being raised Methodist Catholic.
Later in his life Williams developed a serious ulcer, and was given medication to combat the pain. On April 15th 1988, he was found dead in his bed; it was determined that in addition to his regular pain pills, he had apparently taken some sleeping pills the night before, and the combination of those and his regular medication proved fatal. Whether it was an accident or a suicide is debatable to this day. His diaries from his adulthood were collected up and published, and are loved by thousands of Kenneth Williams fans around the world.
He was cremated at East Finchley Cemetery, and his ashes were scattered in the memorial gardens.
(Edited from Wikipedia & The Times)