Born in London, Williams left school at 14. Slight and not very tall,
he had avoided bullying by bigger boys by becoming the class clown.
During World War Two Williams joined the army and served with the Royal
Engineers survey section as a map-maker. With the end of hostilities,
he managed to get himself transferred to the Combined Services Entertainment
Unit touring Malaya, Burma and Singapore. Demobbed from the army Williams
returned to a job as a draughtsman but the comedian Stanley Baxter,
whom he had met during his time with the CSEU, urged him to make a try
for the stage and, after several failures, Williams was finally taken
on by a provincial repertory company in Cornwall in 1948.
After four years of repertory work, he reached London and at the same
time began to pick up small roles in films. His ability to make people
laugh just by using a variety of funny voices first came to the fore
with the radio comedy series Hancock's Half Hour. Tony
Hancock not only resented it but also disliked Williams' use of
what he termed 'cartoon characters'. Hancock was restless for more reality
and Williams was heard no more in the show after 1956. The years of
Williams' greatest popularity began in 1958. The first of die 'Carry
On' films, Carry
On Sergeant, appeared in that year. Williams made 'Carry On' films
for another ten years, and also became a rowdy and undisciplined panellist
on radio's Just a Minute. A few weeks before he was due to go into hospital
for an operation, Williams was found dead from an overdose of sleeping
pills.
