Kenneth Halliwell
| Kenneth Halliwell | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Kenneth Leith Halliwell 23 June 1926 Bebington, Wirral, Cheshire, England |
| Died | 9 August 1967 (aged 41) Islington, London, England |
| Occupation | Actor, writer, collagist |
| Partner(s) | Joe Orton (1933–1967) |
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. He was very close to his mother; when he was 11, he witnessed her death from a wasp sting at the family home.
Halliwell was a classics scholar at Wirral Grammar School, where he gained his Higher School Certificate in 1943. Becoming liable for military service in 1944, he registered as a conscientious objector, and was exempted conditional upon becoming a coal miner. After discharge in 1946, he acted for a time in Scotland and then returned home to act in Birkenhead. His father committed suicide in 1949 by putting his head in a gas oven; Halliwell was the first to find the body the following morning. Afterward, Halliwell moved to London to study drama at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), having inherited the family fortune.
In 1951, he met Joe Orton, a fellow RADA student. Both men were struggling actors who became struggling writers. However, 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". The two men collaborated on several novels, including The Boy Hairdresser, which were not published until after their deaths.
From January 1959, Orton and Halliwell were involved in the theft and defacement of public library books. Halliwell became an illicit collage artist, while Orton wrote the fake blurbs for the flyleaf of the dust jackets. After their trial in 1962 the two men were given custodial sentences, Halliwell was sent to HM Prison Ford in Sussex for six months. (Orton went to Eastchurch in Kent.)
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. Towards the end of his life, Halliwell was on regular courses of anti-depressants.
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