Nicol Williamson is 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. Williamson's 1969 "Hamlet" at the Roundhouse Theatre was a sensation in London, considered by many to 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. In a sense, Williamson and Burton were the last two great Hamlets of the century. 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." While it was unlikely that Williamson could ever achieved the film reputation of Brando (who but Brando did?) or the superstar status that Burton obtained and then lost, his inability to maintain a consistent film career most likely is a result of his own well-noted eccentricities than it is from any deficiency in acting skills.

The great critic and raconteur Kenneth Tynan (Laurence Olivier's first dramaturg at the National Theatre) wrote a 1971 profile of Williamson that elucidated the problem with this potentially great performer. Williamson's Hamlt had wowed Prime Minister Harold Wilson, and Wilson in turn raved about his performance to President Richard Nixon. Nixon invited Williamson to stage a one-man show at the White House, which was a success. However, in the same time period, Williamson's reputation was tarred by his erratic behavior during the North American tour of "Hamlet". In Boston he stopped during a performance and berated the audience, which led one cast member to publicly apologize to the Boston audience. Williamson would be involved in an even more famous incident on Broadway a generation later.

Even before the Boston incident, Williamson had made headlines when, during the Philadelphia tryout of "Inadmissible Evidence," he struck producer David Merrick. In 1976 he slapped a fellow actor during the curtain call for the Broadway musical "Rex." Fifteen years later, his co-star in the Broadway production of "I Hate Hamlet" was terrified of him after Williamson whacked the actor on his buttocks with a sword.

A great stage actor, who also did a memorable "Macbeth" in London and on Broadway, Williamson was twice nominated for Tony Awards as Best Actor (Dramatic), in 1966 for Osborne's "Inadmissible Evidence" (a performance he recreated in the film version) and in 1974 for a revival of "Uncle Vanya." On film, Williamson was superb in many roles, such as the suicidal Irish soldier in The Bofors Gun and Tony Richardson's Hamlet. He got his chance playing leads, such as Sherlock Holmes in The Seven-Per-Cent Solution and the South Afican in Otto Preminger's The Human Factor, and was competent if not unspectacular, likely diminished by deficiencies in the scripts rather than his own talent. Ricahrdson also replaced Williamson's rival as Hamlet, Burton, in his adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's Laughter in the Dark.

It was in supporting work that he excelled in film in the 1970s and 1980s. He was quite effective as a supporting actor, such as his Little John to Sean Connery's Robin Hood in Richard Lester's Robin and Marian, was brilliant in I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can and gave a performance for the ages (albeit in the scenery-chewing category as Merlin) in Excalibur. His Merlin lives on as one of the most enjoyable performances ever caught on film.

Then it was over. While the film work didn't dry up, it didn't reach the heights anymore. He failed to harness that enormous talent and convert it into memorable film performances. He did good work as Louis Mountbatten in a 1986 TV-movie, but the roles became more sporadic, and after 1997 this great actor no longer appeared in motion pictures (though he still continued his stage career, albeit in the rather far-off corner of the UK that is Wales).

Williamson's eccentricities showed themselves again in the early 1990s. 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 shocked audiences when he periodically broke character and derided his co-star and the play in well-publicized tantrums. His co-star told the press that he was afraid Williamson might actually try to injure him during their swordfight in the play, so vehement was his antagonism, Despite good reviews, the play lasted only 100 performances.

Surprisingly, Williamson never won an Oscar nomination, yet that never was a game he seemed to play. In 1970, after his Hamlet triumph, he turned down a six-figure salary to appear as Enobarbus in Charlton Heston's film of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra (the role went to Eric Porter, but 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. 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 closed after only 12 performances in 1996. In contrast, a near contemporaneous one-man show about the troubled actor who was THE Hamlet of his generation, the 1997 production of "Barrymore," starring another vastly talented actor, Christopher Plummer, ran for 236 performances. Its 12 previews matched the run of Williamson's performances, it won Plummer a Tony Award, and went on a successful road tour.

The "I Hate Hamlet" and "Jack" shows are still talked about on Broadway. Williamson has joined the ranks of Barrymore, Burton the Gila actor and Brando the stage actor, 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. All enormously gifted artists, perhaps possessed of genius, they were discombobulated by that gift that became their curse, the burden of dreams -- the dreams of their audiences, their collaborators, their critics. While there is a wistfulness over the loss of such greatness, there is a relief offered, not so much from a moral tale, but as a release from guilt for the run-of-the-mill artists lacking such genius. 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.
Born at 3:45am-BST Starred as King Henry VIII in the Broadway Musical, "Rex". John Osborne called him "the greatest actor since Marlon Brando". Trained at the Birmingham School of Speech & Drama. When appearing as the ghost of John Barrymore in Paul Rudnick's "I Hate Hamlet" on Broadway in 1991, Williamson shocked audiences when he periodically broke character and derided his co-star and the play in well-publicized tantrums. The play lasted only 100 performances despite good reviews. Turned down a six-figure salary to appear as Enobarbus in Charlton Heston's film of Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra," a role eventually played by Eric Porter. According to Kenneth Tynan in his profile of Williamson, his erratic behavior during the North American tour of "Hamlet" led one cast member to publicly apologize to a Boston audience. Was Prime Minister Harold Wilson's favorite Hamlet. Wilson praised his performance to President Richard M. Nixon, and Nixon invited Williamson to stage a one-man show at the White House. He disliked actress Helen Mirren, with whom he had had an affair when the two had appeared in a stage production of "Macbeth," and the feeling was mutual. John Boorman, the director of Excalibur (1981), purposefully cast them as rivals Merlin and Morgana, against both of their protests, because he thought their real life disdain for each other would generate more tension on screen. Was twice nominated for Tony Awards as Best Actor (Dramatic): in 1966 for John Osborne's "Inadmissible Evidence," a performance he recreated in the film version of the same name, Inadmissible Evidence, and in 1974 for a revival of "Uncle Vanya." He lost in 1966 to Hal Holbrook (who won for "Mark Twain Tonight") and in 1974 to Michael Moriarty, who won for "Find Your Way Home". Was a member of the Dundee Repertory Company in the early 1960s. Is the subject of two prints in the Photographs Collection at London's National Portait Gallery: "Niicol Williamson," by Bill Brandt (bromide print on card mount, 1965) and "Niicol Williamson as Corialanus in 'Corialanus'" by Johnny Dewe-Mathews (bromide print, 1973). Was originally supposed to play the Colonel Kane character in William Peter Blatty's The Ninth Configuration, but dropped out at the last minute and was replaced by Stacy Keach.