Frank Williams (actor)

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Frank Williams (actor) bigraphy, stories - English comedy actor

Frank Williams (actor) : biography

02 July 1931 –

Frank Williams (born 2 July 1931)GRO Registers of Birth: SEP 1931 1a 774 HAMPSTEAD – Frank J. Williams, mmn = Myles is an English actor.

Biography

Born in London, Williams was educated at Ardingly College, West Sussex and Hendon School (then Hendon County School). He appeared regularly in the TV series The Army Game (1957-60) as Captain Pocket. His film roles include Norman Wisdom films: The Square Peg (1958), The Bulldog Breed (1960), and A Stitch In Time (1963). He had a leading role in the BBC TV series Diary of a Young Man (1964), which was partly directed by Ken Loach, in addition to small parts in numerous popular TV series of the 1950s and 1960s.

It is however for his role in Dad’s Army as the Reverend Timothy Farthing, that Williams is best known. A coincidence worth noting is that, while at Hendon County, he played the lead in the school play of his final year, The Ghost Train, written nearly 30 years earlier by Arnold Ridley, later to be one of his fellow-actors in Dad’s Army.

In 1970, he starred with Tessie O’Shea in the short-lived sitcom As Good Cooks Go. In 1967 and again in 1971, Williams appeared in an episode of All Gas and Gaiters as one of the vicars choral. In 1972, at the height of his Dad’s Army fame, he had a cameo role in Monty Python’s Flying Circus. He also had an occasional role as a Bishop in You Rang, M’Lord?.

He has lived for many years in Edgware, Middlesex. Until 2000, he was a lay member of the General Synod of the Church of England. Williams was a guest on This Morning on Thursday 31 July 2008, talking about Dad’s Army with fellow cast members, Ian Lavender and Bill Pertwee. He also appeared on BBC1’s Jonathan Ross Salutes Dad’s Army show on Sunday 3 August 2008.

He is the author of several plays, including ‘The Playing Fields’ and ‘Murder Weekend’, some of which have been performed in the pro-amateur theatre.

His autobiography, Vicar to Dad’s Army – the Frank Williams story, was published in 2002.

With other surviving members of the Dad’s Army cast he walked in the funeral procession of The Queen Mother, whose favourite programme it had been.

Williams is the patron of Veneratio, a charity established to counter the social isolation of the elderly.; Veneratio.org.uk. Retrieved 6 July 2012

Television roles

Year Title Role
1958–1961 The Army Game Captain T R Pocket
1969–1977 Dad’s Army Reverend Timothy Farthing
1970 As Good Cooks Go Mr Bullock
1979 You’re Only Young Twice Mr Horrace Maddox in 1 episode, ‘Cissie’s Last Chance’
1990–1993 You Rang, M’Lord? Bishop Charles

Selected filmography

  • The Glass Cage (1955)
  • The Extra Day (1956)
  • The One That Got Away (1957)
  • Bachelor of Hearts (1958)
  • Inn for Trouble (1960)
  • The Bulldog Breed (1960)
  • The V.I.P.s (1963)
  • A Stitch in Time (1963)
  • Hide and Seek (1964)
  • The Deadly Affair (1966)
  • Countdown to Danger (1967)
  • Robbery (1967)
  • Headline Hunters (1968)
  • Dad’s Army (1971)
  • The Morecambe and Wise Show (1973)
  • One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing (1975)
  • Jabberwocky (1977)
  • What’s Up Nurse! (1978)
  • Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978)