Emlyn Williams
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| Emlyn Williams | |
| Born | 26 November 1905 Mostyn, Flintshire, Wales, UK |
|---|---|
| Died | 25 September 1987 (aged 81) London, England, UK |
George Emlyn Williams CBE (26 November 1905–25 September 1987) known as Emlyn Williams, was a Welsh dramatist and actor. He was born into a Welsh-speaking, working-class family in Mostyn, Flintshire, Wales. At the age of 11 he won a scholarship to Holywell Grammar School. At the end of his time at the grammar school he won a scholarship to Christ Church, Oxford.
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[edit] Literary biography
In 1927, he joined a repertory company and began his stage career. By 1930, he had branched out into writing with works such as A Murder Has Been Arranged and The Late Christopher Bean. He became an overnight star, however, with his thriller Night Must Fall (1935) in which he also played the lead. It was made into a film in 1937 and again in 1964, and has been frequently revived, most recently in the West End with Jason Donovan. His other great play was very different: The Corn is Green (1938), partly based on his own childhood, and also later turned into a film starring Bette Davis -and even turned into a musical with lyrics by Williams. It was revived in London at the Old Vic in 1985 with Deborah Kerr. In addition to stage plays, Williams wrote a number of film screenplays, working with Alfred Hitchcock and other directors.
He acted in and contributed dialogue to various films based on the novels of A.J. Cronin, including The Citadel (1938), The Stars Look Down (1940), Hatter's Castle (1942), and Web of Evidence (1959). In 1941 Williams starred in the film You Will Remember, directed by Jack Raymond and written by Sewell Stokes and Lydia Hayward. The film is based on the life of the popular late Victorian songwriter Leslie Stuart, played here by Robert Morley, with Williams as Stuart's best friend.
He often appeared in his own plays, and was famous for his one-man-shows, with which he toured the world, playing Charles Dickens in an evening of excerpts from Dickens' 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 of Dylan Thomas, Dylan Thomas Growing Up, and H.H. Munro better known under his pseudonym Saki.
His postwar acting credits included The Winslow Boy by Terence Rattigan, and The Deputy aka The Representative by Rolf Hochhuth on Broadway.
He also was the "voice" of Lloyd-George in the seminal BBC documentary The Great War (1964)
His autobiography, in the volumes George (1961) and Emlyn (1973), was also highly successful. In it, he wrote frankly of his early homosexual experiences, though he later married in 1935 and had two sons; his wife died in 1970. Among Williams' other books was the best seller Beyond Belief: A Chronicle of Murder and its Detection (1968), a semi-fictionalized account of the Moors murderers, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley. His novel, Headlong, was the basis of the film King Ralph, but little of the characters or story survived the transition to the screen.
Williams was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1962.
Emlyn Williams died in London, aged 81, from complications from cancer.
[edit] Bibliography
[edit] Plays
- Full Moon
- A Murder has been Arranged
- Spring 1600
- Night Must Fall
- He was Born Gay
- The Corn is Green
- The Light of Heart
- The Morning Star
- A Month in the Country (Adaptation from Turgenev)
- The Druid's Rest
- The Wind of Heaven
- Trespass
- Accolade
- Someone Waiting
- Beth[1]
