PIKLE · THEDIARYJUNCTION . KIPFENN · CONTACT

THIS IS THE DIARY JUNCTION - DATA AND LINKS FOR OVER 500 HISTORICAL AND LITERARY DIARISTS PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT ALSO TO LOOK AT KIP FENN, A MAJOR NOVEL ABOUT THE 21st CENTURY - freely available on this site Williams, Kenneth ___ 1926-1988 ___ British ___ actor BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY Kenneth Williams was born in London, the son of a hairdresser, and educated at Lyulph Stanley School. At 18 he joined the army, and went with the Royal Engineers survey section to Bombay, and then to Sri Lanka, but managed to get a transfer to Combined Services Entertainment. After the war, he tried to establish himself as a serious actor in the theatre, but gravitated to radio where his voice and style suited programmes such as 'Hancock's Half Hour' and the Kenneth Horne shows. Indeed, he remained a radio star for the rest of his life, appearing, for example, in 'Just a Minute' for over 20 years. But, having established a comic persona with radio, he did win roles in television and films, most notably the Carry On series. Williams publicly insisted that he was celibate, but wrote discreetly, in his diaries, about his love of other men. He befriended Joe Orton and took holidays with him and Kenneth Halliwell. Williams died from an overdose of barbiturates, and it was never established whether his death was accidental or suicide. His last diary entry reads: '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?' One biography link DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS 1942-1988 ___ self family love/sex people theatre film health WEB TEXT LINKS lots about 'a few choice cuts' ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS SOME PUBLISHED TITLES The Kenneth Williams Diaries December 2005 THIS IS THE DIARY JUNCTION - DATA AND LINKS FOR OVER 500 HISTORICAL AND LITERARY DIARISTS Please email if you have any corrections, additions or comments.

IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.

PIKLE · THEDIARYJUNCTION . KIPFENN · CONTACT
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