Hugh Williams

Hugh Anthony Glanmor Williams (6 March 1904 – 7 December 1969) was a British actor and dramatist of Welsh descent.

Hugh Anthony Glanmor Williams (nicknamed "Tam") was born at Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex to Hugh Dafydd Anthony Williams (1869-1905) and Hilda (née Lewis). The Williams family lived at Bedford Park, in Chiswick, West London. His paternal grandfather was Hugh Williams (1796-1874), a Welsh solicitor and anti-establishment political activist. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He was a popular film and stage actor, who became a major film star in the British cinema of the 1930s. In 1930 he toured America in the cast of the R.C. Sheriff play Journey's End and appeared in his first film Charley's Aunt during a spell in Hollywood. He then returned to Britain and became a mainstay of the British film industry. He made 57 film appearances as an actor between 1930 and 1967. He collaborated with his second wife on several plays, such as The Grass Is Greener and the screenplay for the subsequent film. He died from an Aortic aneurysm, aged 65, in London.

During the Second World War, he served as a Captain in “Phantom” GHQ Liaison Regiment.

Marriages and grandchildren

He was married twice:

• Gwynne Whitby (1925–1940) (two children)
  • Lou Williams
  • Prue Williams
• Margaret Vyner (1940–1969) (three children):
  • Hugo Williams (born 1942), poet
  • Simon Williams (born 1946), actor who married Belinda Carroll and Lucy Fleming
  • Polly Williams (1950-2004), actress who married Nigel Havers

and his grandchildren included:

• Kate Dunn, actress
• Amy Williams, actress
• Tam Williams, actor

• The Grass Is Greener (play) (1952, book)
• Plaintiff in a Pretty Hat (1957, play, with Margaret Williams)
• The Grass Is Greener (1960, screenplay)
• The Irregular Verb to Love (1961, play, with Margaret Williams)
• Charlie Girl (book, with Margaret Williams)

• Journey's End (1930)
• Grand Hotel (1931)
• While Parents Sleep (1932)
• Flowers of the Forest (1935)

• Masterpiece Playhouse in episode: Richard III (episode No. 1.2) (1950)
• The Count of Monte Cristo playing Millet in episode: "Flight to Calais"
• Colonel March of Scotland Yard playing Harold Hartley in episode: "The Talking Head" (episode No. 1.11) (1956)
• Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Presents as Shayar (sic!) in "Scheherezade" (episode No. 5.10) (1956)
• The New Adventures of Charlie Chan playing Inspector Marlowe in episode: "Dateline Execution" (episode No. 1.18) (1957)
• The New Adventures of Charlie Chan playing Inspector Marlowe in episode: "No Future for Frederick" (episode No. 1.23) (1958)
• The New Adventures of Charlie Chan playing Inspector Marlowe in episode: "Safe Deposit" (episode No. 1.24) (1958)

• Sweet, Matthew. Shepperton Babylon: The Lost Worlds of British Cinema. Faber and Faber, 2005.