Michael Leonard Williams was born on the 9th of July, 1935 in Liverpool, and attended St. Edward's Christian Brothers school where his English teacher inspired a love of Shakespeare. At 16, he asked his father about drama school and was told to ask again at 21. Meanwhile he started work in the insurance business and shared an office, sitting opposite another, future actor, Leonard Rossiter, at the Commercial Union, Liverpool. Having studied acting at RADA on a scholarship he joined Nottingham Repertory Theatre where he made his first stage appearance. This was the start of him getting together with his future wife which was a long, protracted affair after first becoming aware of her when a colleague at Nottingham Playhouse, where he was in rep, told him he had just split up with her. In 1959 Michael joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, remaining with them for fourteen years. Whilst there at the RSC, Judi Dench was approached to co-star with him in 'The Taming Of The Shrew' where he was playing Petruchio. She jumped at the chance, but the success of her latest production meant she was unable to join the cast. At the RSC, Judy and Michael became nodding acquaintances and over the course of nine years regularly met up for chats but romance failed to blossom. Eventually they holidayed together and soon Michael could not bear to be parted from her. His time at at the RSC included playing such classic parts as Puck in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', Lodowick in 'The Jew of Malta', Orlando in 'As You Like It', the Fool in 'King Lear', and Troilus in 'Troilus and Cressida'. In the heyday of Peter Hall's Royal Shakespeare Company, he angered enough theatre-goers as Adolf Eichmann, in 'The Representative', to need police protection. He also chilled at the Ashcroft Theatre, Croydon, wielding a murderous knife in 'Cry For Love' and played Charles Courtly in 'London Assurance' twice, in 1970 at the Aldwych and in 1972 at the New Theatre.
Their different spiritual beliefs - Judi is a Quaker, and Michael a Roman Catholic - were no bar to marriage and they were married on the 5th of February 1971, the same year that they co-starred in a stage production of John Webster's 'The Duchess of Malfi'. Michael sent his wife a single red rose every Friday. They continued to earn respect and accolades for their theatre work but it was with ITV's 'A Fine Romance' (1981-84), that they hit the big time. They starred as Mike and Laura, a landscape gardener and translator respectively, who reluctantly fall in love as they approach middle age. Their hesitant attempts at a relationship kept viewers glued for four series until wedding bells sounded in the show. Other joint appearances have included stage productions in London's West End in shows such as 'Pack Of Lies ' and 'Mr And Mrs Nobody'. Later they appeared together on screen in the movie 'Tea With Mussolini' although he admitted he only took the part to 'hold Judi's hand' during filming in Italy. It was his appearances in Ray Cooney's plays, farces which produced sublime acting, that were to lift his talent to stardom. He played the innocent, charming school teacher in 'Quartermaine's Terms', which he toured in 1982. Then there was his achievement as George, the PPS to Donald Sinden's adulterous cabinet minister in 'Two Into One' (1984), Henry V (1989) and 'Out of Order' (1990).
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| In 'A Fine Romance' |
The couple's bliss was shattered in 1993 when he and Dame Judi's Grade II listed home in Hampstead was destroyed by fire while their daughter Finty was at home with a friend. Williams said: 'All our acting awards were wrecked but that is not what upsets us most. It is the things Judi and I collected over the years together, gifts we had given each other that we will miss most.' News of Michael's cancer emerged in August 1999, two months after the illness was first diagnosed and after one of his last stage appearances in 1998's West End production of the one-man play 'Brief Lives'. His other theatre credits included 'Schweyk', 'The Representative', 'Too True to Be Good' and 'Marat/Sade'. He also appeared in the 1966 film version of the latter, legendary Peter Brook production. His final film was 1999's "Tea with Mussolini," which also starred Judi Dench. Other movies include Kenneth Branaugh's 'Henry V' and 'Educating Rita'. He was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 2000 (1999 season) for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in 'The Forest' at the Royal National Theatre, Lyttelton Stage. He (as Dr. John H. Watson) and Clive Morrison (as Sherlock Holmes) are the only acting duo to complete the entire Conan Doyle canon of 'Sherlock Holmes' stories.
In June 1999, Dame Judi missed several performances of the Broadway run of David Hare's 'Amy's View' to fly to her ailing husband's side in London. "I am devastated to disappoint anyone who came to see me in the play," said Judi at the time, "but because of the circumstances I am unable to perform." Michael was chairman of the Catholic Stage Guild for several years and shortly before his death from lung cancer at the age of 65, he was appointed a Knight of St Gregory (KSG) by Pope John Paul II for his contribution to Catholic life in Britain. The honour was officially bestowed upon him at home on the 10th of January 2001. He died the next day at his London home with the London Times reporting 'Mr. Williams had been battling lung cancer for some time'.
Michael was buried in the churchyard of St Leonard's, the Anglican parish church of Charlecote, Warwickshire. He was a fan of Everton FC, and godfather to the actor Roy Kinnear. He and Judi had one daughter, Tara Cressida Williams (b. 1972), known as Finty Williams who is also an actor.
see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2023/10/a-history-of-liverpool-thespians-colin.html
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