Kenneth Connor was born on 6 June 1918 in Highbury, Islington, London, the son of a naval petty officer who organised concert parties. He made his first stage appearance at the age of two, in one of his father's shows, and trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama, where he won a Gold Medal. He served in the Middlesex Regiment during the Second World War, continuing to perform for troops with ENSA and Stars in Battledress.
Connor became one of Britain's best-loved comic character actors, appearing in seventeen of the Carry On films between 1958 and 1978, including Carry On Sergeant, Carry On Nurse and Carry On Cleo. On television he was familiar as Monsieur Alfonse in 'Allo 'Allo! (1984-1992) and Uncle Sammy Morris in Hi-de-Hi! (1986-88), and he appeared in Blackadder the Third (1987). He was appointed MBE in 1991 and continued working until shortly before his death, appearing on Noel Edmonds' Telly Addicts. Connor died of cancer at his home in Harrow, Middlesex, on 28 November 1993, aged 75.
A legacy claim on this record stated that Connor had a Welsh mother from the Afan Valley near Port Talbot. This could not be independently verified: published biographical sources, including the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, record no Welsh ancestry, giving his mother's maiden name as Campling with no stated Welsh connection. This entry is retained with that honest caveat rather than presenting the family claim as established fact.