Trivia

When told that Williams was too common a surname to use professionally, he adopted the name Maynard after seeing a sign advertising Maynard's Wine Gums.

His second wife was Tonia Bern-Campbell, widow of Donald Campbell who died trying to break the world water speed record in 1967.

Despite appearing in five of the Carry On films, he was baffled by their popularity.

He was forced to retire temporarily from acting in 2000 after suffering a number of strokes, the final one being while he was filming for Heartbeat (1992) in which he had played Claude Jeremiah Greengrass for ten seasons. The character of Claude was written out, mid-series, in such a way that Bill Maynard could return if his health improved: in the story, Claude moved to the West Indies to live with his sister, who won a lot of money and wanted to share it with him (Safe House (2001)). He returned to acting in 2003, playing the same character in The Royal (2003), a spin-off from Heartbeat (1992). It is set in hospital and he was in bed a lot, but appeared to have recovered.

He lost part of the middle finger of his right hand in a childhood accident with a mangle.

He came second in the heats for the singer to represent Britain in the 1957 Eurovision Song Contest.

He specialized in playing character and comedy roles.

He filmed a supporting role as Mr. Fiddler, the boss of Wundatours travel agency in L'Ile en folie (1972), but his entire performance was cut as the film went over time.

Although a Labour Party supporter, in 1984 he stood as an independent Labour candidate against Tony Benn in the Chesterfield by-election because he thought the ballot had been fiddled to get Benn into a safe seat. Benn retained his seat with Maynard coming in fourth place.

He had two children with Muriel Linnett: Martin (born 1951) (later known as Maynard Williams) and Jane (born 1954).

He was due to play the part of the Police Inspector in Carry on Girls (1973) but dropped out in favour of a better-paying TV job so the part went to David Lodge.

He started as a professional footballer but pulled a ligament which ended that career.

He started in show business as a band singer at Butlins Holiday Camps.

He started as a child entertainer doing impressions of George Formby.

His father was a soldier,.

His 1st wife was Muriel, his second was , Tonia , the widow of Donald Campbell.