HEATHCOTE WILLIAMS

(15 November 1941 - 1 July 2017)

The poet, playwright, political rabble-rouser and magician, no less, Heathcote Williams has died after a long illness at the age of 75. He also wrote songs and took up painting and sculpture but was chiefly known for his poetry, plays and pamphleteering. However, Williams also pursued another career as an actor in films. It all started with Malatesta (1970), a German TV film about the Italian anarchist in which he played Joseph Solokow and in which his life partner, the historian Diana Senior, also appeared. He also co-wrote the screenplay. He was Prospero in Derek Jarman’s The Tempest and also appeared in Wish You Were Here, Little Dorrit, Stormy Monday, Miss Julie, The Browning Version, Slipstream, Orlando, The Tango Lesson, Cousin Bette, The Legend of 1900, The Escort, Basic Instinct 2, and many more, while on television he was in episodes of Friends, Dinotopia and Judge John Deed, plus Nick Willing’s Alice in Wonderland. In all, Williams made over forty appearances on film and TV. He also wrote screenplays and adapted his own play, The Local Stigmatic, for Al Pacino. He had two daughters courtesy of Diana Senior and a son by a previous relationship with the novelist Polly Samson.

MICHAEL DARVELL