Actor Michael Williams vows to beat his cancer
By A J McIlroy
MICHAEL WILLIAMS, the actor who became a household name when he co-starred with his wife Dame Judi Dench in the Eighties ITV sitcom A Fine Romance, is suffering from cancer, it was disclosed yesterday.Close friends said they were on holiday at a private location where they were coming to terms with his illness. "The prognosis is good and he refuses to give in to the disease because he has too much to live for," one said. Victoria Belfrage, his agent, said last night: "Michael has cancer and has undergone treatment. He is on an even keel, in very good spirits and he has lots to look forward to."
It is understood the cancer was discovered in June when Williams was taken to hospital with pleurisy. Dame Judi, 64, abandoned her award-winning Broadway role in Amy's View to be at her husband's bedside. The actress, who won an Oscar this year for her movie performance as Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love, apologised to her audience, saying: "I am devastated to disappoint anyone who came to see me but I must be with my family at this time."
Their marriage of 28 years has been described as one of the most enduring in show business, and has been strengthened by their stated mutual resolve "to work together to make it work". It has not always been easy. Seeing his own career being eclipsed by his wife's enormous success, Williams told one interviewer during a period out of work: "It is hard to take. I am old-fashioned enough to think I should be providing the bread."
Dame Judi, who believes that her husband is underrated as a serious actor, said: "When I married Michael, I wasn't sure whether it was going to work. I would just hope for the best and never presume it will be all right. There have been traumas. Six years ago fire destroyed their Grade II listed house in Hampstead. Their actress daughter, Finty, whose real name is Tar Cressida, is mother to Sam, who is now nearly two years old.
Williams, a former president of the Roman Catholic Actors' Guild, was reportedly not amused when his unmarried daughter announced the impending birth. Typically he rallied round. He said: "We both would have liked it to have been done in a different way. But Finty is no longer a young girl. It was her decision and when we were confronted, we gave her all the support we could."
In the same spirit, he hid his disapproval when his daughter appeared "in the buff" with the actor Neil Pearson in the David Hare film Secret Rapture. A friend described Williams as old-fashioned and never a hellraiser. Williams and Dame Judi tell friends that the closeness of their relationship was brought home to them when fire destroyed their £300,000 home in 1993. He said: "So much that we cherished had been destroyed, even Judi's wedding dress.
"All our acting awards were wrecked but that is not what upsets us most. It is the things Judi and I collected over the years together, gifts we had given each other, that we will miss most." The couple were staying at their second home at Outwood, Surrey, when the fire started. Their daughter, then 20, was at the Hampstead house with a friend. "Finty and her chum were both so shocked by what had happened," Williams said at the time. "Judi and I are so thankful they were not hurt."
Dame Judi said: "The first thing I saw was the lovely drawing of Michael as the Fool in King Lear which the designer John Napier did as a birthday present at my request. It was sticking out of a huge pile of rubble. Just poking upwards. I was transfixed for a moment or two. I am having things made out of my wedding dress and wedding coat which were badly damaged. It was a Donegal tweed coat. There are bits worth saving." On the day of the fire, they continued with a recording of King Lear for Radio 3. Williams said: "There was no question of us not doing the work. The show must go on."
Williams, who is not much taller than his wife's 5ft 1in, learned his craft over 14 years with the Royal Shakespeare Company under the guidance of Peter Hall, and he held his own by Dame Judi's side in the West End productions of Pack of Lies and Mr and Mrs Nobody. He appeared in the television comedy drama September Song and recently starred in the West End in a one-man show, Brief Lives.
This article appeared in the Electronic Telegraph on August 27, 1999