Kenneth Connor MBE (6 June 1918[1][2] – 28 November 1993) was an English comedy stage, radio, film and TV actor, best known for his appearances in the Carry On films. Born in Islington, London, the son of a naval petty officer who organised concert parties [1] Connor first appeared on the stage at the age of 2 as an organ-grinder's monkey in one of his father's shows, in Portsmouth. By 11 years old, he had his own act. He attended the Central School of Speech and Drama, where he was a Gold Medal winner. Connor made his professional debut in JM Barrie's The Boy David, at His Majesty's Theatre, London, in December 1936. During WWII he served as an infantry gunner with the Middlesex Regiment but continued acting by touring Italy and the Middle East with the Stars In Battledress concert party and ENSA. While waiting to be demobbed in Cairo, Connor received a telegram from William Devlin asking him to join the newly formed Bristol Old Vic, where he gained a solid grounding in the classics. He moved on to the London Old Vic company for a 1947-48 season at the New Theatre. His most notable performances there were as Chaplain de Stogumber in Saint Joan and Dobchinsky in The Government Inspector, which starred Alec Guinness. Realising he was not a ``tall, impressive juvenile lead or a young lover type`` he decided to specialise in comedy. He took over from Peter Sellers in Ted Ray's radio show Ray's a Laugh - launched by the BBC in 1949 as a successor to Tommy Handley's ITMA. He played the brother-in-law and other oddball characters such as Sidney Mincing. Ray took Connor with him to his TV shows, and the pair would star together in the third Carry On film,Carry On Teacher. On occasion he appeared in The Goon Show, standing in for regular cast members struck down by illness. He also appeared in the anarchic, Goon-style TV series Idiot Weekly, Price 2d (1956) and A Show Called Fred (1956). In 1955, Connor gained a small role in the film The Ladykillers (1955) as a taxi driver