Kevin Spacey, Richard E. Grant and Nigel Hawthorne were just some of the faces who gathered
from all parts of the world at Covent Garden's St Paul's Church to pay tribute to a man whose
smile, according to Trevor Nunn, 'turned the edge of the wind'. Dressed in white, Dame Judi Dench
sat before an altar on which a silver baptismal bowl was crammed with dozens of red roses. Every
Friday during her marriage to Williams, Dame Judi was given a single rose from 'my spoony old
thing'. 
Ned Sherrin recalled the frosty reception of the RSC's Marat Sade in New York 'because
the American audience had yet to be told by their critics the play was a masterpiece'. Williams and
another actor 'drowned their sorrows' in a bar. Their voices got louder and louder, until a gent in a
fedora down the end of the bar said, 'Get those Shakespearean cats a drink.' The bartender replied,
'Yes, of course, Mr Sinatra.'
Thanks to Marla Campbell for sending me this article, which appeared on the People News web site.