OBITUARIES : British Film Comedy Star Kenneth Williams

Comedian Kenneth Williams, who starred in more than 20 of the farcical “Carry On” movies, died suddenly at his London home Friday, his agent said. He was 62.

The agent, Gerald Thomas, did not reveal the cause of death.

In addition to the boisterous and often risque “Carry On” movies, which poked fun at everyday British life, Williams was a star of British stage, television and radio.

He developed a distinctive effeminate voice which became his trademark and, when he appeared on television, his arching eyebrows, flaring nostrils and rolling eyes made him instantly recognizable.

The 22 “Carry On” films he made, including “Carry On Sergeant” and “Carry On Camping,” were full of bottom-pinching and jokes about faulty plumbing. In “Carry On Doctor” he was cast as “Dr. Tinkle.”

“I like smutty old jokes,” he once said. “Honest vulgarity is the central tradition of English humor and uninhibitedness the essence of comedy.”

Williams first discovered a gift for mimicry in school and perfected it as a soldier, entertaining troops in World War II.

His first theatrical job was in Singapore while waiting to be let out of the armed forces after serving in India, Burma and Singapore.

“He was an actor whose talents were never fully used,” Thomas said. “He developed a style all of his own. As a person, he was a great raconteur who really sang for his supper.”

Williams, a bachelor, once proclaimed he had “never been in love” and thought marriage was unnatural. He lived alone in an apartment next door to his mother, Louisa.

He said in his 1985 autobiography that he never wanted to play serious roles.

“Laughs are more important than tears,” he said. “There are plenty of people who can play serious roles . . . but there are not many who can be funny.”

Of life in general he said: “The shorter the better. I think to go at 65 or 70 is fine. Why hang about?”