Harcourt Williams

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Harcourt Williams with Margaret Halstan in Romeo and Juliet (1905)

Ernest George Harcourt Williams (born March 30, 1880 in Croydon , England , † December 13, 1957 in London , England) was a British actor and theater director .

Life

Harcourt Williams, son of a businessman, joined Frank Benson's traveling theater company at the age of 17 after taking his first acting lessons . He stayed with Benson for over five years and made his first appearances on London theaters during this period. Williams quickly gained a good reputation and played with Ellen Terry , the leading Shakespeare interpreter at the time . The young Williams also worked with other British theater greats of their time such as HB Irving (on a tour of the USA) and George Alexander. He was also successful with important roles in the historical plays Mary Stuart and Abraham Lincoln by John Drinkwater .

From the 1920s onwards, Williams became increasingly active as a theater director, and in 1929 he was finally appointed by Lilian Baylis as the new director of the renowned Old Vic Theater in London. Above all, William insisted that, in addition to Shakespeare, more modern plays - by George Bernard Shaw , for example - would be featured on the program. He also engaged the later theater legends John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson to the Old Vic, where they would have a significant impact in the following decades. After Williams had staged around fifty plays there, he handed the direction of the Old Vic over to Tyrone Guthrie in 1934 .

In the following decades, Williams remained a busy actor on the London stage, occasionally taking on guest roles at the Old Vic, although he took it easy because of his increasing age. In later years, Williams also discovered film for himself, after having avoided it for a long time: at the age of 64, he made his film debut as the mentally confused King Charles VI. in Heinrich V at the side of Laurence Olivier , who also took over the direction of the film. He then played an important supporting role as a corrupt lawyer in the British thriller Brighton Rock (1947) alongside Richard Attenborough and was seen in the Hollywood film A Heart and a Crown (1953) as an ambassador alongside Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck . He also worked a few times in the still young British television. In 1956 Williams took on one last small guest role in the Oscar-winning Jules Verne film around the world in 80 days .

Harcourt Williams, who had been married to Jean Sterling MacKinlay since 1908, died in London in December 1957.

Filmography (selection)

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personal data
SURNAME Williams, Harcourt
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Williams, Ernest George Harcourt (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British actor and theater director
DATE OF BIRTH March 30, 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH Croydon , England
DATE OF DEATH December 13, 1957
Place of death London , England