Thomas Nicol Williamson was born in 1936 (he would later claim 1938 in Whos Who) in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, the son of a factory owner. Actor. [1] When he was 18 months old, his family moved to Birmingham, England. Learn How rich is He in this year and how He spends money? After retiring from rugby league in 2010, Williamson became a rugby league coach. Playwright John Osborne once described him as . His son Luke said Wednesday that his father died Dec. 16 in Amsterdam, where he had lived for more than two decades. In the following year, he appeared as Flute in Richardson's Royal Court production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. He had lived mostly in Amsterdam since 1970, but could sometimes be seen in various north London pubs, where he was quite happy to mind his own business and leave the pursuit of glamour and glory to other, less deserving performers. AMSTERDAM Nicol Williamson, the British actor best known for his role as the wizard Merlin in the 1981 film has died of esophageal cancer, his son said Wednesday. Nicol Williamson won rave reviews for his theater work but never warmed to the acting scene, which Luke described as self-congratulatory and insincere. Williamson had dozens of film credits to his name but won more plaudits for his stage acting. His first major success came in 1964 with John Osbornes Inadmissible Evidence for which he was nominated for a Tony Award when it transferred to Broadway in 1965. Find the best deals on Small Appliances from your favorite brands. He reprised the role Off Broadway in 1981. [[File:Williamson, Luke.JPG|thumb|right|100px|Williamson at the celebration of the winning of the 2008 NRL Grand Final. Nicol Williamson was nominated for three BAFTA Awards, a Saturn Award, two Tony Awards,[19] and won the Silver Shell for the Best Actor from the San Sebastin International Film Festival in 1969 for his performance in Laughter in the Dark. See Nicol Williamson full list of movies and tv shows from their career. He adds that a cause that was particularly close to his father's heart was the Regional Youth Shakespeare Company of which he was the patron. Director John Boorman cast him opposite Helen Mirren as Morgana over the protests of both actors; the two had previously appeared together on stage in Macbeth, with disastrous results, and they disliked each other intensely. Williamson's 1969 "Hamlet" at the Roundhouse Theatre was a sensation in London, considered by many to be the best limning of The Dane since the definitive 20th-century portrayal by John Gielgud, a performance in that period, rivaled in kudos only by Richard Burton's 1964 Broadway performance. More Images Mr. Williamson played Macbeth more than once, perhaps because his aggrieved Scottish temperament seemed so suitable for that tormented Scottish general and king. Film crews adored him for his understanding and respect for their craft. Following the season Williamson left Canberra and join another new and short lived club, the Northern Eagles. Playing the title role in Hamlet for Tony Richardson, he won an unlikely fan in Harold Wilson. [7] He left school at 16 to begin work in his father's factory and later attended the Birmingham School of Speech & Drama. Upon seeing Williamson portray Hamlet in London in 1969, the New York Times review declared that the title of Greatest English Actor of his Generation was about to fall on Williamsons shoulders. His last words were 'I love you'. Williamson was known for several tantrums and on-stage antics. Directing him was a constantly surprising process. After his national service as a gunner in the Airborne Division, Williamson made his professional debut with the Dundee Repertory Theatre in 1960 and the following year appeared with the Arts Theatre in Cambridge. One can be comforted by the fact that while one lacks the pearl of such a talent, they also lack the irritating genius that engenders that pearl. He has not appeared on the Great White Way since his own one-man show about John Barrymore that he himself crafted, "Jack: A Night on the Town with John Barrymore," which had enormously successful runs, both at the Criterion Theater in London, and The Geffen Theater in Los Angeles playing to packed houses, before closing on Broadway after only 12 performances in 1996.The "I Hate Hamlet" and "Jack" shows are still talked about on Broadway. Back in 2013, I embarked on a mad quest to write a biography of Nicol Williamson. After spending two years in the military in Britain, he was hired to play a pirate in Sinbad the Sailor for Dundee Repertory Theatre in Scotland. He worked as strongly with other actors when he was off-camera as when on. On film, Williamson was superb in many roles, such as the suicidal Irish soldier in The Bofors Gun (1968) and Tony Richardson's Hamlet (1969). In 1976, he slapped an actor during the curtain call for the Broadway musical, Rex. His father, Hugh Williamson, later operated an aluminum manufacturing plant; and his mother, Mary, had a wonderful singing voice, he later recalled. Mr. Williamson was born in Hamilton, Scotland, on Sept. 14, 1936, and grew up mostly in Birmingham, England, where, he once told The Globe and Mail of Toronto, As a boy I always felt superior to others. After serving in the British Army, he left home to become an actor in 1960, joining the Dundee Repertory Company and later the Royal Court in London, where he began garnering acclaim, and the Royal Shakespeare Company. He was 75. In 1971, Williamson married actress Jill Townsend, who played his daughter in the Broadway production of Inadmissible Evidence. Awards He looks ratty and frantic, a man barely in control of himself, Clive Barnes wrote in The Times. To modern filmgoers, he is probably best known for The Exorcist III and for playing Merlin in Excalibur. After playing his first three games from the bench, he would play the rest of the season at Five-eighth and again was the club's top scorer with 98 points from 3 tries and 45 goals. I came back to Brisbane and played there for six months, but I was still signed and went back down when it was back up and ready to go". Finney's Hamlet was a failure, and while Derek Jacobi's turn as The Dane was widely hailed by English critics, he lacked the charisma and magnetism -- the star power -- of a Williamson or Burton.Playwright John Osborne, whose play "Inadmissible Evidence" was a star vehicle for Williamson in London's West End and on Broadway, called him "the greatest actor since Marlon Brando." It was Boorman's hope that the very real animosity that they had towards each other would generate more tension between them on screen. Williamson's greatest performance was as the dissolute and disintegrating lawyer Bill Maitland in John Osborne's Inadmissible Evidence at the Royal Court theatre in 1964. The role was played by Eric Porter, but his choice was justified in that the film was derided as a vanity production and savaged by critics).Williamson had been a staple on Broadway, even using his fine singing voice to appear as Henry VIII in the Broadway musical "Rex" In 1976. Williamson is currently once again the coach of the Sea Eales NSW Cup team in 2013. According to Mirren, she and Williamson, free from the problems with Macbeth, "wound up becoming very good friends" during Excalibur.[10]. He is from . The play was seen again last year at the Donmar Warehouse, with Douglas Hodge in the leading role. "Dad just said, 'go to Adelaide', I left home as soon as I finished high school and a couple of months later I was down there by myself not knowing anyone. According to Luke, Nicol Williamson died peacefully. Williamson gained recognition from a much wider fanbase for his performance as Merlin. NICOL WILLIAMSON OBITUARY. Nicol Williamson, whose death of oesophageal cancer at the age of 73 has been announced, wasarguably the most electrifying actor of his generation, but one whose career flickered and faded like a faulty light fitting. Although critics hailed the performances of the understudy as a "vast improvement" it caused a sensation in the press. Shop the best selection of deals on Food Storage now. The Northern Eagles, who had been formed as the result of an unhappy merger between long time rivals the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles and the North Sydney Bears, folded after the 2002 season with the licence falling back to more financially stable Manly-Warringah. He was not interested in publicity.. Williamson plays every one of the personalities and also his skill is such one understands United Nations company every personality is merely by the various voices that he makes use of (Smaug is great, as is Gollum). Following the season Williamson left Canberra and join another new and short lived club, the Northern Eagles. Ben Williamson Kimdir, Nereli, Ya ve Boyu Ka? Nicol Williamson was an enormously talented actor who was considered by some critics to be the finest actor of his generation in the late 1960s and the 1970s, rivaled only by Albert Finney, whom Williamson bested in the classics. Some of his other notable cinematic performances include as a troubled Irish soldier in the 1968 Jack Gold film The Bofors Gun; in 1975 as an intelligence officer in apartheid South Africa in The Wilby Conspiracy (starring Sidney Poitier and Michael Caine); as Sherlock Holmes in the 1976 Herbert Ross film The Seven-Per-Cent Solution; and as Little John in the 1976 Richard Lester film Robin and Marian. [2], After his national service as a gunner in the Airborne Division, Williamson made his professional debut with the Dundee Repertory Theatre in 1960 and the following year appeared with the Arts Theatre in Cambridge. Born in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, he attended the Birmingham School of Speech and Drama. Playing in the centres he kicked a late goal to help seal the Rams first ever away win. These are the best Kitchen Linens deals you'll find online. The actor passed away of oesophageal cancer shortly before Christmas in Amsterdam, where he lived. June 22, 1969, Section D, Page 10 Buy Reprints . Anyone can read what you share. AMSTERDAM (AP) - The son of Nicol Williamson says the British actor, best known for his role as the wizard Merlin in the 1981 film "Excalibur," has died of esophageal cancer. He was 75. He was better known for his Merlin in Excalibur, John Boormans 1981 treatment of the Arthurian legend, and his Sherlock Holmes, whom he played as driven to the brink of madness by drug addiction in the 1976 adventure film The Seven-Per-Cent Solution. Directed by Herbert Ross, it also starred Robert Duvall as Watson and Alan Arkin as Sigmund Freud. He appeared to be drawn to roles that presented a marathon challenge to his ability to portray the darker human emotions, the Los Angeles Times said in 1969, while noting that he was touchy, mercurial and very, very talented., In the movies, he had his most visible success in Excalibur as the wizard, magnificently played, according to the 1981 Times review. In an episode of The David Frost Show in the 1960s, during a discussion about death, which also involved poet John Betjeman, Williamson revealed that he was very much afraid of dying, saying that I think of death constantly, throughout the day and that I dont think there is anything after this, except complete oblivion.On 25 January 2012, Luke Williamson announced on his fathers official web site that Nicol Williamson had died on 16 December 2011, aged 75, after a two-year struggle with esophageal cancer. Later, in a Broadway production he directed himself, the eccentricities he brought to the role overwhelmed the production. His character was one of the few suspects who attempted to kill Columbo. is 184cm (6ft 0in) and Weight 96kg (15st 2lb). And then he walked off stage. Like Eric Morecambe playing the piano, heknew all the notes, but not necessarily in the right order. He was nominated for a Tony Award in 1966 for his role in Osbornes He also was nominated three times for acting honors at the British Academy Film Awards, Britains equivalent of the Oscars. The Crushers offered me a contract worth exactly the same amount - $10,000 for the year - as Super League did when I was in South Queensland's under 17s. He got his chance playing leads, such as Sherlock Holmes in The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976) and Castle in Otto Preminger's The Human Factor (1979), and was competent if not spectacular, likely diminished by deficiencies in the scripts rather than his own talent. His career-making role was Bill Maitland in Inadmissible Evidence, a grueling part in a grueling play about a middle-aged lawyer whose life is in tatters. When it was published, warts and all, Williamson was furious and never spoke to Tynan again. In 1971, Williamson married actress Jill Townsend, who had played his daughter in the Broadway production of Inadmissible Evidence. Photograph: George Elam/Associated Newspapers, Michael Pennington on Nicol Williamson: 'Most of what is written about his unreliability is tosh', Roland Jaquarello on Nicol Williamson: 'He had a rare danger and passion'. After playing in the backs for most of his career, Williamson took on the role of Lock forward following the retirement of Ben Kennedy at the end of the 2006 season. He had areputation of a dangerous disposition combined with a staggering talent. Mr. Williamson also appeared on Broadway as a replacement for George C. Scott in the Neil Simon comedy Plaza Suite and as a replacement for Jeremy Irons in Tom Stoppards drama The Real Thing. In 1996 he had a one-man show, Jack: A Night on the Town With John Barrymore. In the movies his credits include Sir Edward More, the devastated philanderer in the 1969 adaptation of Nabokovs Laughter in the Dark; Little John, a sidekick to an aging Robin Hood (Sean Connery) in Robin and Marian (1976); and a bullying boyfriend to Jill Clayburgh in the 1982 drama Im Dancing as Fast as I Can.. They had a son, Luke, but divorced in 1977. Tall and wiry, with a rasping scowl of a voice, a battered baby face and a mop of unruly curls, he was the best modern Hamlet since John Gielgud, and certainly the angriest, though he scuppered his own performance at the Round House, north London, in 1969, byapologising to the audience and walking off the stage. Discover Luke Williamson's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. . [14] In 1976, he slapped actor Jim Litten during the curtain call for the Broadway musical Rex. He is also the nephew of former Innisfail, Newtown, Qld, New South Wales and Australian and Halifax winger Lionel Williamson. Nicol Williamson (Thomas Nicol Williamson) was born on 14 September, 1936 in Hamilton, Scotland, UK, is an Actor, Soundtrack, Miscellaneous. Nicol Williamson, a Scottish-born actor whose large, renegade talent made him a controversial Hamlet, an eccentric Macbeth, an angry, high-strung Vanya and, on the screen, a cocaine-sniffing Sherlock Holmes and whose querulous temperament could make his antics as commanding as his performances died on Dec. 16 in Amsterdam, where he had lived for more than 20 years. Williamson was nominated for his second Tony Award in 1974, for his role in Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya. No one who saw him on stage will ever forget him, but it is difficult to see his career as anything but unfulfilled. Some of his other notable cinematic performances are as a deeply troubled Irish soldier in the 1968 Jack Gold film The Bofors Gun; Sherlock Holmes in the 1976 Herbert Ross film The Seven-Per-Cent Solution; and Little John in the 1976 Richard Lester film Robin and Marian. A beautiful hardback, available in bookshops. He recalled his time there as "a disaster" and claimed "it was nothing more than a finishing school for the daughters of local businessmen". The cause was esophageal cancer, his son, Luke, said Wednesday on the Web site nicolwilliamson.com. Luke Williamson is the son of Henry Williamson who represented Queensland in 1971 and later played with Newtown in 1973 and 1974. Ultimately, acting didnt seem to mean all that much to Williamson, who died in relative poverty. After appearing in more than 30 productions over nearly 18 months, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1962. A much respected stage actor, he was nominated for his first Tony Award in 1966 for Inadmissible Evidence. According to his official website, Nicol himself re-edited the original script, removing many occurrences of he said, she said, and so on, as he felt that an over-reliance on descriptive narrative would not give the desired effect. His first season with Canberra would be the most successful in his 14-year career. I went down after school in late '95 and in '96 Super League was brushed in the courts. ucla prime cohort; h e b shortbread cookies. Nicol Williamson, the British actor best known for his role as the wizard Merlin in the 1981 film "Excalibur" and as Sherlock Holmes in 1976's "The Seven-Per-Cent Solution," died of esophageal. Nicol Williamson felt more at ease when being part of his cabaret act. He loved the great musicians and improvisation. His family later moved south to England, and Williamson was educated at the Central Grammar School for Boys, Birmingham. His performance in Inadmissible Evidence in 1964 won him superb reviews in London, and, later, a Tony award on Broadway. In a sense, Williamson and Burton were the last two great Hamlets of the century. A review of Excalibur in the London Times in 1981 said, The actors are led by Williamsons witty, perceptive Merlin, missed every time hes off the screen.. "I tried to make him a cross between my old English master and a space traveller, with a bit of Grand Guignol thrown in.". The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Scottish actor Nicol Williamson, best known for his role as the wizard Merlin in the 1981 film Excalibur, dies aged 75, his family announces. He starred in the film version in 1968. Williamsons rise and fall had been startling. Williamson spoke with NRL.com in 2020 saying "I was on a scholarship with South Queensland and they offered me a contract right in the middle of Super League war. When appearing as the ghost of John Barrymore in the 1991 Broadway production of Paul Rudnick's "I Hate Hamlet" on Broadway in 1991, Williamson's co-star quit the play after being thumped on the buttocks with a sword during a stage fight. I tried to make him a cross between my old English master and a space traveler, with a bit of Grand Guignol thrown in.. You dont know if hes going to be nice to you or punch you in the mouth, a fellow cast member in the doomed, 1976 Broadway musical Rex said. Before he died, he was able to finish recording the CD he had been working on, said his son, Williamsons only immediate survivor. Williamson has joined the ranks of Barrymore, Burton, and Brando, in that they have become phantoms who haunt the theater and film that they they served so admirably on the one hand but failed on the other. 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