Kenneth Williams was an actor in the Carry On films playing in a total of 26 of the them. His full name was Kenneth Charles Williams and he was born in 1926 in London, England. He sadly died at the age of 62 in Camden, London. As well as the Carry On films he was also involved in a number of radio comedies.
His father Stanley was a barber and Kenneth did not really get on with him, describing him as 'morose'. He adored his mother, who was named Louisa, however and this probably much shaped the rest of his life. He joined the army at the age of 18 after working as a draughtsman for a mapmaker. It was at this point in his life that he first had the experience of performing on the stage when he was in Bombay working with the Royal Engineers. The performance took place as part of Combined Services Entertainment, with whom Kenneth was involved.
Following the war he worked initially in theatre but was not really suited to the 'serious' parts that he undertook. He was disappointed at this point with the lack of direction his career was taking. However, he was then spotted by producer Dennis Wilson, who gave him a break on the radio in his show 'Hancock's Half Hour'. After this Kenneth enjoyed a number of TV and film appearances and became involved in the Carry On series. The cast of Carry On were famously rather poorly paid and Kenneth recorded in one of his diaries that he actually earned more doing one advert for British Gas than he did for the whole of the Carry On films put together! Despite the fact that he did earn a decent amount of money in his later life, Kenneth continued to live in small flats situated in North London. Together with Billy Connelly, he holds the record for having appeared on Michael Parkinson's show the most - a total of 8 times.
Towards the end of his life Kenneth's health started to deteriorate, as was that of his mother Louisa, who was by this time rather elderly. He gradually sunk into depression and died of an overdose of Barbiturates in his flat in Camden in 1988. However, it was not clear whether this was accidental or whether he had taken the overdose.