Childhood:

Education: At the age of 14 in 1940, Kenneth Williams was sent to the School of Lithography off Fleet Street. He was soon evacuated, with the start of the War, to Bicester in Oxfordshire. He returned to London to resume his lithography studies in 1941.

Work: In 1943 Kenneth Williams was briefly with an amateur dramatics troupe, the Tavistock Players. In February 1944 he was inducted into the armed forces with a period with the Border Regiment in Cumbria to improve his fitness. He was then posted to the Survey Section of the Royal Engineers. In April 1945 he was sent to Bombay via a troop ship from Greenock. In August 1945 he was sent to a map reproduction unit in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). He soon obtained a transfer to Combined Services Entertainments. He failed his first audition but his drawing skills were used for posters and gave him the opportunity to try again. He played the part as the detective in Seven Keys to Baldpate at the Victoria Theatre, Singapore, and he secured his place in the troupe.
He returned to London in December 1947 and took parts in a number of plays before starting to obtain parts in various BBC radio programmes. This led to parts in films and television programmes. Kenneth Williams became most well known for his roles in the Carry On films. The pool of actors who also played roles in this series of 30 films included the gay men Charles Hawtrey and Frankie Howerd. On BBC radio from 1955 to 1958 he was appearing in the comedy series Hancock’s Half Hour, and then from 1958 to 1963 he was in Beyond our Ken. From 1965 to 1969 he was, with Hugh Paddick, in Round the Horne, playing Julian and Sandy who were two obviously gay men and who released a flood of polari onto an unsuspecting public. Stop Messin’ About followed in 1969.
Kenneth Williams was a key member of the celebrity game show Just a Minute! on BBC Radio 4 from 1967 to 1987. He also appeared on several television chat shows. In 1984 he had his own show on television: An Audience with Kenneth Williams. He was on the BBC Radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs in 1961 and 1987. He was the Compére in the television series International Cabaret, from 1966 to 1968. Kenneth Williams acted in 26 Carry On films. He also wrote books and diaries.

Friend & Relationships: In 1965 he went on holiday to Morocco with Joe Orton (He was appearing as Inspector Truscott in Orton’s play Loot at the time) and he had liaisons there but his closest friend for all of life.

Finest Achievement: His appearances in the Carry On films and on Just A Minute and as Julian in Around The Horne.