William King studied at the University of Florida (1942-43); with Milton Hebald and John Hovannes at Cooper Union, New York (1945-48); again with Hebald at the Brooklyn Museum Art School (1952-53), Accademia de'Belle Arti, Rome (1950); and the Central School of Arts and Crafts, London (1952). He taught at the Brooklyn Museum School (1953-60), the University of California at Berkeley (1965-66), the Art Students League (1968-69), the University of Pennsylvania (1972-73), and the State University of New York (1974-75).
His public commissions included murals for the SS United States (1952) and the Bankers Trust Company, New York (1960).