Kenneth Halliwell
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Kenneth Halliwell | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Halliwell on holiday in Tangier, c. 1967 | |
| Born | Kenneth Leith Halliwell 23 June 1926 |
| Died | 9 August 1967 (aged 41) Islington, London, England |
| Occupations | Actor, writer, collagist |
| Partner | Joe Orton (1951–1967) |
Kenneth Leith Halliwell (23 June 1926 – 9 August 1967) was a British actor, writer and collagist. He was the mentor, boyfriend and murderer of playwright Joe Orton.
Halliwell was born in Bebington on the Wirral near Liverpool. He was very close to his mother; when he was 11, he witnessed her death from a wasp sting at their family home.[1]
Halliwell was a classics scholar at Wirral Grammar School, where he gained his Higher School Certificate in 1943.[2] Eligible for military service in 1944, he registered as a conscientious objector, and was exempted conditional upon becoming a coal miner.[3] After discharge in 1946, he acted for a time in Scotland[1] and then returned home to act in Birkenhead. His father committed suicide in 1949 by inhaling coal-gas in a gas oven; Halliwell was the first to find the body the following morning, but he "stepped over the body, put the kettle on, made a cup of tea and had a shave" before he reported the death.[1] Halliwell later moved to London to study drama at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), having inherited the family fortune.[2]
Relationship with Orton
In 1951, Halliwell met fellow RADA student Joe Orton.[4] Both men were struggling actors who became struggling writers; their common interests led to a lengthy romantic relationship. Halliwell, in the early years, seems to have been something of a mentor to Orton, who had had a rather cursory education, and helped to mould the writing style that would later be called "Ortonesque".[5][6] The two men collaborated on several novels, including The Boy Hairdresser, which were not published until after their deaths.[7]
From January 1959, Orton and Halliwell were involved in the theft and defacement of Islington public library books. Halliwell became an illicit collage artist, while Orton wrote the fake blurbs for the flyleaf of the dust jackets.[8][9] After their trial in 1962 the two men were given custodial sentences: Halliwell was sent to HM Prison Ford at Arundel in Sussex for six months and Orton went to HM Prison Eastchurch at Sheerness in Kent.[10]
Orton's eventual success as a writer, which began not long after their release from prison, put a distance between the two men that Halliwell found difficult to handle.[11] Towards the end of his life, Halliwell was on regular courses of anti-depressants.[3]
Murder–suicide
On 9 August 1967, Halliwell mortally injured Orton with nine hammer blows to the head, then overdosed on pentobarbital (Nembutal) sleeping pills. Halliwell died first.[12] Their bodies were discovered late the following morning, when a chauffeur arrived at the door of their Noel Road flat in Islington to collect Orton for a meeting with director Richard Lester to discuss filming options on Up Against It, an unproduced script by Orton, written in 1967 for the Beatles.
Halliwell's suicide note referred to the contents of Orton's diary as an explanation for his actions:
If you read his diary, all will be explained. KH PS: Especially the latter part.[13]
This is presumed to be a reference to Orton's description of his promiscuity; the diary contains numerous incidents of cottaging in public lavatories and other casual sexual encounters.
