Carry On star Kenneth Williams would have turned 100 years old today, had he not sadly died at the age of 62 back in 1988. The comedy actor might have shot to fame in everything from Hancock’s Half Hour to Jackanory, but his final hours were rather lonely. Williams claimed to be asexual and celibate, and lived alone throughout his adult life.

Though he had several gay dalliances over the years – as documented in his diaries – Williams mostly spent time with friends, including playwright Joe Orton and actors Sheila Hancock and Maggie Smith. By the 1950s, he was living in a string of rented apartments across London, close to his mother.

In his later years, Williams was described as “tormented”, and he himself admitted to being lonely. He was close to gay couple Tom Waine and Clive Dennis, with his biographer Christopher Stevens claiming his relationship with the two was his “only long-lasting love affair”.

Stevens claimed: “He adored Tom, and admired his education, but they were never physically intimate. But as a threesome, they partied, dined, promenaded and raved it up in Tangier.”

He wrote them around 150 letters in his lifetime.

The Carry On star would face tragedy in 1967 when the news of Joe Orton’s murder reached him. He had been killed by his lover Kenneth Halliwell, and Williams reportedly “couldn’t take it in”.

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According to Stevens, he instead went out to the cinema and stayed in denial for several months after the homicide.

Williams penned his final diary entry the day before he died, in April 1988. His final words were: “Oh, what’s the bloody point?”

He died from an overdose of barbiturates, though an inquest into the death reached an open verdict, unable to say whether he had intended to commit suicide or not. Likely it was an accidental overdose, as Williams had doubled his usual dose of antacid without consulting his GP – and mixing the medications could have led to his death.

If you have been affected by this story, you can contact the Samaritans, call 116 123, email jo@samaritans.org or visit https://www.samaritans.org/