Anecdotes

Gave early encouragement to a young Richard Burton. In fact, Burton's stage debut, "The Druid's Rest", and film debut, The Last Days of Dolwyn (1949), were both written and directed by Williams. Later, his son Brook Williams, became a very close friend of Burton.

Was godfather of actress Kate Burton, daughter of Richard Burton.

He was 12 when his family moved from the rural village of Pen-y-Fforddto to the English-speaking town of Connah's Quay. There, at Holywell County School, he caught the eye of his eccentric and forthright teacher Miss Sarah Grace Cooke. Cooke encouraged his literary talents and it was mainly through her efforts he won an open scholarship to go to Christ Church College Oxford.

From the 1950's until shortly before his death, he toured in several versions of his one-man show "Emlyn Williams as Charles Dickens", which he also recorded on LP and performed on television in two different versions. He also performed the show on Broadway.

He was awarded the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1962 Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to drama.

Father of actor Brook Williams and novelist Alan Williams.

Was nominated for Broadway's 1958 Tony Award as Best Actor (Dramatic) for "A Boy Growing Up."

His 1980 novel "Headlong" was loosely adapted as Ralph Super King (1991), in which John Hurt played the role of Lord Percival Graves. Both Williams and Hurt played the Roman Emperor Caligula in adaptations of Robert Graves' 1934 novel "I, Claudius": Williams in the unfinished film I, Claudius (1937) and Hurt in Moi Claude empereur (1976).

He was scheduled for a part in Wild Geese II.

As a successful writer, he was sometimes given to rewriting his own dialogue when he acted in films and TV dramas written by other people. According to Bette Davis, she implored him to do extensive rewriting on the script of "Another Man's Poison", which he did without credit; when, many years later, he played a guest role in the TV series "Rumpole Of The Bailey", he handed out new pages to the cast at the start of the first read-through without having consulted anyone or been asked to do so, and was most put out when the director and other actors refused to accept this. However, he then did the script as John Mortimer had written it.

In 1940 he appeared in a film Mr Borland Thinks Again.

His first volume of autobiography, "George", described his boyhood and education, whilst his second one, "Emlyn", described his life as a young man of the theater in London in the 1920s and 30s. This volume caused some shock among his readers as he calmly admitted to having been an active homosexual at that time, and had been in a long and difficult relationship with a young criminal, who had inspired the character of the murderous Danny in his successful play "Night Must Fall". Williams implied that his marriage to Molly O' Shann had put an end to this phase of his life, although a biography of him by James Harding after his death suggested that this was not entirely true.