Kenneth Charles Williams (22 February 1926 – 15 April 1988) was a British actor and comedian. He was best known for his comedy roles and in later life as a raconteur and diarist. He was one of the main cast 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 frequent 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 said his father spoke Cockney. He served in the Royal Engineers during the Second World War, in which 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 his private life, however, he suffered from depression. He kept a series of diaries throughout his life that achieved posthumous acclaim.
Kenneth Charles Williams was born on 22 February 1926 in Bingfield Street, King's Cross, London. His parents were Charles George Williams (1900-1962), who managed a hairdresser's shop in the Kings Cross area, and Louisa Alexandra (née Morgan) (1901-1991), who worked in the business. 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 had a half-sister, Alice Patricia "Pat", born to his mother in 1923 before she had met Charles, three years before Kenneth was born.
Williams was educated at the Lyulph Stanley Boys' Central Council School, a state-owned Central school, in Camden Town, North London, and was subsequently apprenticed as a draughtsman to a mapmaker. His apprenticeship was interrupted by the Blitz, and he was evacuated to the home of a bachelor veterinary surgeon in Bicester, Oxfordshire. This provided his first experience of an educated, middle-class life. 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 had done 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, Williams met Stanley Baxter, Peter Vaughan, Peter Nichols, and John Schlesinger.
Both of Williams's parents were born in London, but with a Welsh heritage extending for several generations. Williams sometimes described himself as Welsh, noting his parents' surnames and origins in his diaries and in interviews.: In 1968, during the filming of Carry On Up the Khyber in Snowdonia National Park, Williams stated that "I always like being back in Wales. I always feel a hiraeth, it always comes back to you, once you step back into the place where you have atavistic memories." A year later, Williams would describe a debate in Ireland when he was told he had some nerve showing his "English face in Dublin". Williams dramatically responded with a "very slow take and riposted 'Wanna get your facts right, dear, I'm Welsh'" before rising to his feet and reciting The Bard, a Pindaric Ode by Thomas Gray. Williams noted that this performance was cut short by applause, for which he was grateful as he did not know any more of the poem. Two years before his death, Williams guest hosted the Wogan chatshow; drawing the audience's attention to a display of red roses, Williams commented, "It's St George's Day today and the rose is the symbol of St George, the patron saint of England. I wouldn't know anything about it. I'm not English, I'm Welsh." before proclaiming "Mymryn bach o Gymru, Cymru sydd, Cymru fydd – Cymru am byth!" (A little bit of Wales, Wales is, Wales will be – Wales forever!)
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 (1958–1964), and its sequel, Round the Horne (1965–1968). 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 (1958–1978) 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 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 series 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. Williams was also a regular on the BBC Radio comedy show Round the Horne, playing, alongside Hugh Paddick, the characters Julian and Sandy who spoke in a comedic version of Polari.