Carry On Jack star Kenneth Williams was living in a modest and sparsely decorated flat in London in his tragic final days before his death aged 62.
His co-star Juliet Mills reflected on the poignant atmosphere of his living space during their final encounter, which lacked personal touches and seemed to mirror the loneliness he felt in his final days.
She shared her memories of their time working together, as she revealed the experience left a lasting impression on her, highlighting the complexities of his character both on and off the screen.
Speaking to Retro Boy magazine in 2019, Mills shared of their final meeting: “Well I must have seen him last around 1984/85. We had dinner; I went to his flat. He lived near Madame Tussauds.
“His flat was very spare to say the least. It was very tidy but there wasn’t much in it. In the sitting room was a sofa and two chairs, two tables and two lamps and the most fantastic quadrophonic sound system because he listened to classical music all the time.
Kenneth Williams died back in 1988 aged 62 (Image: Getty)
She finished: “His bedroom was a bed, a side table, and a big painting.”
The notoriously tricky star of the Carry On Film series was great friends with Mills and supported her while she was pregnant when nobody else knew she was.
She added: “Yes. I loved him. He didn’t suffer fools gladly, and he could be very impatient and rude to people, but if you were his friend, he was a loyal, loving friend and one of the funniest men I have ever met.
The cause of death was an overdose of barbiturates. An inquest recorded an open verdict because it was not possible to establish whether his death was suicide or an accident.
Kenneth was part of the Carry On film franchise. (Image: Getty)
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His diaries reveal that he had often had suicidal thoughts, and some of his earliest diaries record periodic feelings that there was no point in living.
He was cremated at East Finchley Cemetery, and his ashes were scattered in the memorial gardens. Williams left an estate worth under £540,000 (approximately equivalent to £1,829,000 in 2023).
Mills added: “He could just make you laugh. He would repeat one word repeatedly, and you would be in stitches, ‘Yees, Yeeees, Yeeeees!’.
“Some of the funniest stuff from ‘Carry On Jack’ was probably on the cutting room floor because it wasn’t printable!”
Kenneth died on 15 April 1988 in his flat. His last words, recorded in his diary, were, “Oh, what’s the bloody point?”