 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Emlyn Williams" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(July 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Emlyn Williams CBE | |
|---|---|
 Williams in 1974, portrait byAllan Warren | |
| Born | George Emlyn Williams (1905-11-26)26 November 1905 |
| Died | 25 September 1987(1987-09-25) (aged 81) |
| Occupation(s) | Writer, dramatist, actor |
| Years active | 1927–1985 |
George Emlyn Williams,CBE (26 November 1905 – 25 September 1987) was aWelsh writer,dramatist and actor.
Williams was born into aWelsh-speakingworking class family at 1 Jones Terrace,Pen-y-ffordd, Ffynnongroyw,Flintshire. He was the eldest of the three surviving sons of Mary (née Williams) a former maidservant, and Richard Williams, a greengrocer.[1] He spoke only Welsh until the age of eight. Later, he said he would probably have begun working in the mines at the age of 12 if he had not caught the attention of Sarah Grace Cooke, the model for Miss Moffat inThe Corn Is Green. She was a teacher of French at the grammar school inHolywell, Flintshire, where Williams had gone on a scholarship. Over the course of seven years from 1915 onwards she encouraged him in his studies, and she also helped to pay for him to stay with a French friend of hers in Haute-Savoie in France, where he spent three months perfecting his French. When he was 17 she helped him to win a scholarship toChrist Church, Oxford, where he studied French and Italian.[2]
In 1926, during his studies at university, Williams had anervous breakdown, which was blamed largely on a failed friendship with another undergraduate. As a means of recovery Miss Cooke encouraged him to write.[3] However, Williams intended to enter the theatrical world too and joined theOxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS).[4]
Aged 22, Williams performed with OUDS in his first full-length play,Full Moon, at the originalOxford Playhouse in 1927. Later that year he joined a London-based repertory company and began his stage career. By age 25 (1930), he had expanded his writing with works such asA Murder Has Been Arranged andThe Late Christopher Bean. The same year he appeared inEdgar Wallace's hit thrillerOn the Spot in the West End.
Over the next few years Williams took on roles on stage and in films, including the first film version of Edgar Wallace's mystery,The Frightened Lady. At the age of 30 he became an overnight star with his thrillerNight Must Fall (1935), in which he also played the lead role of a psychopathic murderer. The play was noted for its exploration of the killer's complex psychological state, a step forward for its genre.
His other highly successful play was very different:The Corn Is Green, written in 1938 when he was 33), was partly based on his own childhood in Wales. He starred as a Welsh schoolboy in the play's London premiere. The play came to Broadway in 1940 withEthel Barrymore as the schoolteacher Miss Moffat. A 1950 Broadway revival starred Eva La Gallienne. The play was turned into a very successful film starringBette Davis, and again into a made-for-television film starringKatharine Hepburn, under the direction of Williams's close friendGeorge Cukor. An attempt to turn the play into a musical in the 1970s, with Davis again in the role of the schoolteacher with lyrics by Williams, failed. So did a Broadway revival in 1983 starringCicely Tyson andPeter Gallagher. But a 1985 London revival at theOld Vic withDeborah Kerr was successful, as was a 2007 production at theWilliamstown Theatre Festival inMassachusetts. That production starredKate Burton. Williams was a close friend of Kate's parents,Richard Burton and Burton's first wife, Sybil. In theWilliamstown production, the schoolboy – the role created by and modelled on Williams himself – was played by Kate Burton's son, Morgan Ritchie.[5]The Corn is Green was revived at theNational Theatre in London in 2022 withNicola Walker playing Miss Moffat.[6] Emlyn Williams included this story in his early autobiographyGeorge covering the years 1905-1927 and published in 1961.[7] A sequel,Emlyn, covering the years 1927–1935, was published in 1973.
Emlyn Williams's autobiographical light comedy,The Druid's Rest, was first performed at theSt Martin's Theatre,London, in 1944. It saw the stage debut ofRichard Burton, whom Williams had spotted at an audition inCardiff. The play has been revived atClwyd Theatr Cymru in both 1976 and 2005, and received its firstLondon revival in sixty years at theFinborough Theatre in London in 2009.[8][9]
In addition to stage plays, Emlyn Williams wrote a number of film screenplays, working withAlfred Hitchcock (onThe Man Who Knew Too Much),Carol Reed and other directors. He acted in and contributed dialogue to various films based on the novels ofA. J. Cronin, includingThe Citadel (1938),The Stars Look Down (1939),Hatter's Castle (1942) andWeb of Evidence (1959).[citation needed] He played the mad Roman emperorCaligula in the uncompleted 1937 film version of Robert Graves's novelI, Claudius (with Charles Laughton);[10] a kindly veterinarian who accidentally causes the death of a murderess (played byBette Davis) in the 1952 suspense dramaAnother Man's Poison; and the fool Wamba in the 1952Ivanhoe (withRobert Taylor andElizabeth Taylor).[citation needed]
Other screen credits include Hitchcock's adaptation ofDaphne du Maurier'sJamaica Inn (withCharles Laughton), Gabriel Pascal's film version ofGeorge Bernard Shaw'sMajor Barbara (withWendy Hiller andRex Harrison),José Ferrer'sI Accuse! (playing Émile Zola),The Wreck of the Mary Deare (with Gary Cooper),The L-Shaped Room (withLeslie Caron), and a made-for-TV adaptation ofCharles Dickens'sDavid Copperfield (with an all-star cast includingLaurence Olivier,Michael Redgrave,Ralph Richardson andEdith Evans). In 1941 Williams starred in the filmYou Will Remember, directed by Jack Raymond and written bySewell Stokes and Lydia Hayward. The film is based on the life of the popular late Victorian songwriterLeslie Stuart, played here byRobert Morley, with Williams as Stuart's best friend. Also in 1941, he had a principal supporting part (as Snobby Price) inGabriel Pascal's filming ofGeorge Bernard Shaw'sMajor Barbara.[citation needed]
Williams's only film as a director,The Last Days of Dolwyn (1949), which he also wrote and starred in, marked the screen debut of Richard Burton. Williams often appeared in his own plays, and was famous for his one-man shows, with which he toured the world, playingCharles Dickens in an evening of excerpts fromDickens's novels. This "one man show" was the start of a whole new theatrical genre. He followed up his Dickens performance with one man shows based on the works ofDylan Thomas,Dylan Thomas Growing Up, andSaki. His post-war acting credits includedThe Winslow Boy byTerence Rattigan andThe Deputy akaThe Representative byRolf Hochhuth on Broadway. He also was the "voice" ofLloyd George in the seminalBBC documentaryThe Great War (1964).[citation needed]
Among Williams's other books was the bestsellerBeyond Belief: A Chronicle of Murder and its Detection (1968), a semi-fictionalised account of theMoors murderers,Ian Brady andMyra Hindley. His 1980 novelHeadlong, a story of the unexpected death of the entire British royal family in a freak accident in 1930, and the ascent of a most unlikely heir to the British throne as a result, was the loose basis of the 1991 motion pictureKing Ralph.[11]
On Monday 17 February 1975, Williams wasRoy Plomley's guest onDesert Island Discs onBBC Radio 4. The author's book choice was a dictionary with a typewriter, pen and paper combined as his luxury.[12]
Williams was married in 1935 to actress Mary Marjorie O'Shann (Molly Shan), who died in 1970. They had two sons,Alan, a writer, andBrook, an actor. Brook became a close friend of Richard Burton, working as his personal assistant and appearing in many of his films. Williams was godfather toKate Burton.
Both during his marriage and following his wife's death, Williams was actively bisexual throughout his adult life.[13] He maintained a relationship from 1981 to 1986 with American theatre journalist Albert N. Williams, whom he met while he was appearing at the Northlight Theatre in theChicago area with his one-man Charles Dickens show. Albert Williams served as Emlyn Williams's personal assistant during a 1982 tour of England, Wales andIreland with the Charles Dickens andDylan Thomas solo shows.[citation needed]
Emlyn Williams died on 25 September 1987 at his flat inDovehouse Street,Chelsea, London, from complications from bowel cancer. He was 81 years old. He was cremated atGolders Green Crematorium, London.[16]
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help);|website= ignored (help)
