Name Harcourt Williams Parents John Williams Ex-spouse Jean Sterling MacKinlay | Role Actor Children John Sterling | |
Died December 13, 1957, London, United Kingdom Movies Roman Holiday, Hamlet, Around the World in 80 Days, Brighton Rock, Under Capricorn Similar People William Wyler, Michael Anderson, Henri Alekan, Laurence Olivier, Alfred Hitchcock | ||
Robin Harcourt Williams reads KJB, Isaiah Chapter 6.
Ernest George Harcourt Williams (30 March 1880 – 13 December 1957) was an English actor and director. After early experience in touring companies he established himself as a character actor and director in the West End. From 1929 to 1934 he was director of The Old Vic theatre company; among the actors he recruited were John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson. After directing some fifty plays he resigned the directorship of the Old Vic but continued to appear in the company's productions throughout the rest of his career. He appeared in thirty cinema and television roles during his later years.
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Life and career
Williams was born in Croydon, London, the son of John Williams, a merchant. He was educated at Beckenham Abbey and Whitgift Grammar School, Croydon. After taking drama lessons he joined Frank Benson's touring company in 1897. He remained with Benson for five years, and made his London debut at the Lyceum in 1900, playing Sir Thomas Grey in Henry V. He then worked for three other companies, including that of Ellen Terry, which he joined in 1903.
In 1906 Williams made his American debut, with H B Irving, touring the US for a year. After returning to Britain he was in George Alexander's company before returning for another period with Irving. He married the actress Jean Sterling Mackinlay in 1908. Their son John Sterling became a well-known pianist.
One of Williams's most notable parts of this period was General Lee in John Drinkwater's Abraham Lincoln in 1919; he later switched to the role of the Chronicler in the same production. In 1922, in Mary Stuart by Drinkwater, he was "exquisitely repulsive" as Darnley. In a third historical drama by the same author he was John Hampden in Oliver Cromwell at His Majesty's in 1923, to the Cromwell of Henry Ainley. In 1923 he directed G K Chesterton's play Magic at the Everyman Theatre. In 1926 he appeared in John Barrymore's production of Hamlet at the Haymarket Theatre, as the Player King.
In 1929, when he was forty-nine, Lilian Baylis appointed Williams as the new director of her Old Vic theatre company. He was responsible for engaging first John Gielgud and then Ralph Richardson to join the Old Vic as leading man. Over the next four years Williams directed about fifty plays for the company, also acting in many of the productions. He expanded the Old Vic's traditional repertoire to include modern works by Bernard Shaw and others. The biographer Jonathan Croall writes of Williams:
A sweet, gentle and trusting man, a conscientious objector during the Great War, he was universally known as Billie, and as a vegetarian lived on Bemax [a wheatgerm healthfood] and bread and cheese. … But behind the eccentric facade was a fanatical enthusiast for the theatre. … Williams was an imaginative producer, with a great feel for Shakespeare's poetry, and a desire to introduce a more psychological interpretation of character. He was also a man with a mission: to get rid of the mannered "Shakespearean voice", to break down the deliberate style of verse-speaking which made productions over-long and tedious. … Scene changes, which often held up the action, would be swift and simple. Above all, the text would be inviolate.
After leaving the directorship of the Old Vic, handing over to Tyrone Guthrie after the 1933–34 season, Williams frequently accepted invitations to act with the company, for Guthrie and his successors. He appeared in thirty film and television roles between 1944 and 1956. Williams celebrated his golden jubilee as an actor while appearing in a long-running production of Shaw's You Never Can Tell described by The Times as "the liveliest show in town". He died in London after a long illness, aged 77.
Screen roles
Williams's cinema and television roles were: