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Actors - Kenneth Williams |
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Kenneth Charles Williams (22 February 1926 – 15 April 1988) was a British comic actor, star of over twenty Carry On... films and notable radio comedies with Tony Hancock and Kenneth Horne, as well as a witty raconteur on a wide range of subjects.Life and careerKenneth Williams was born near St. Pancras station, London, the son of a hairdresser. He was educated at Lyulph Stanley School. His relationship with his parents (he hated his father and adored his mother) was key to the development of his personality. Williams apprenticed as a draughtsman to a map maker and joined the army aged 18. He was part of the Royal Engineers survey section in Bombay when he had his first experience of going on stage with Combined Services Entertainment.After the war, his career began with a number of roles in repertory theatre, but few serious parts were to lend themselves to his style of delivery. His failure to become established as a serious dramatic actor would disappoint him, but it was his potential as a comic performer that gave him his big break. He was spotted playing the Dauphin in George Bernard Shaw's St Joan in 1954 by the radio producer Dennis Main Wilson, who was casting Hancock's Half Hour. He would lend his distinctive voice and amazing vocal talent to the radio series to almost the end of its run, five years later. Meanwhile he became a foil to Kenneth Horne in the series Beyond Our Ken (1958–1963), and then consolidated this with its sequel Round the Horne (1964–1969). In the latter, his roles included Rambling Syd Rumpo, the eccentric folk singer, Seymour Thundergarst, the yodelling rabi, The Amazing Proudbasket, human cannonball, J Peasemould Gruntfuttock, professional telephone heavy breather and dirty old man, and Sandy of the extremely camp couple, Julian and Sandy (Julian was played by Hugh Paddick), notable for their double entendres and use of the underground gay slang, Polari. He also worked in television and British films, most notably the Carry On... series. Particularly in the theatre, he was famous for breaking out of character and talking to the audience. He was a regular panellist on the BBC radio panel game Just a Minute from its second season in 1968 until his death, and regularly presented the children's story-reading series Jackanory. He was also a "professional" talk-show guest, able to regale an audience with amusing anecdotes on every subject. He was extremely well read and occasionally used to "stand in" as host on the popular early evening Wogan (talk) show. Williams publicly insisted that he was celibate, but in private found his homosexuality difficult to deal with. His diaries contain many references to unconsummated or barely-consummated relationships, described in code as "traditional matters" or "tradiola", probably because homosexuality was still a criminal offence in the United Kingdom for much of the period covered by the diaries. He befriended Joe Orton who wrote the role of Inspector Truscott in Loot (1966) for him and enjoyed holidays with Orton and Kenneth Halliwell in Morocco. In later years his health declined. Despite making a good living, he lived throughout his life in a series of small flats in north London. Kenneth Williams died on April 15, 1988 from an overdose of barbiturates. An inquest recorded an open verdict into his death as it was not possible to establish whether his death had been suicide or an accident (Williams' father had died in similarly unclear circumstances after drinking a bottle of solvent). However, the last sentence Williams wrote in his diary was: "By 6.30 pain in the back was pulsating as it's never done before … so this, plus the stomach trouble combines to torture me — oh — what's the bloody point?"Friends continue to maintain that, because of Williams' devotion to Lou, his mother, for whom he purchased the flat adjacent to his, he would never — in her lifetime — have seriously contemplated suicide. The posthumous publication of his diaries and letters, both edited by Russell Davies, caused some controversy. PerformancesFilmsalmost complete
[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Kenneth Williams ] Some related entries: Zbigniew Cybulski | Geoffrey Holder | Ondřej Vetchý | Isabel Madow | Three Little Words | Hinton Battle | Abi Tucker | Fred Rogers | Taeko Nakanishi | David Jason | Randi Wright This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Kenneth Williams; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL. | Searches on eBay
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