# Nicol Williamson dies
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicol-williamson-dies/610941
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [January 28, 2012, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicol-williamson-dies/610941 "2012-01-28T02:06:06Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2012, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicol-williamson-dies/610941/1 "2012-01-28T02:06:06Z")
I can’t believe it – Two threads on Robert Hegyes (Epstein) dying, but the only mention Nicol Williamsob gets is a brief notice in the Celebrity Death Pool thread
[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=633271&page=17&highlight=Williamson](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=633271&page=17&highlight=Williamson)
Williamson wasn’y just Merlin in **Excalibur** and Little John in **Robin and Marian**. He was Sherlock Holmes in \*\*The Seven Per Cent Solution and the Nome King in the underappreciated **Return to Oz**. . He was also a varied stage actor, and he sang. I saw him onstage in the Boston tryout for Richard Rodgers’ last musical, **Rex** , the life of Henry VIII
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### Author:  [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2012, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicol-williamson-dies/610941/2 "2012-01-28T03:46:23Z")
I recall an interview with Kenneth Brannagh in which he said he took cues in the “St Crispin’s” speech from the many RSC actors around him and paid special attention to the grunts and whines from Williamson. With the best set of tutors ever he nailed it.
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### Author:  [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2012, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicol-williamson-dies/610941/3 "2012-01-28T06:19:06Z")
Oh crap. That’s a real shame, I thought he was a fascinating actor. It was almost impossible to keep your eyes off him in any scene he was in. I loved his vulnerability as Holmes in _The Seven Per Cent Solution_ and he’s actually one of my favorite Holmeses, which is not a popular opinion I know. And his Merlin in _Excalibre_ cracked me up – sometimes purposely, sometimes unintentionally, but it was an especially engaging (and unusual) performance. I _think_ he was going for a Welsh or perhaps Cornish accent, which makes sense historically I suppose but the resulting line readings were so over-the-top they made a campy movie even better than it had a right to be. (Plus, he and hot Helen Mirren were quite chemistry-laden.)
He seems to have developed a bad rep as an actor (not as a bad actor, but as an unpleasant/disconcerting person to work with) back in the late eighties/early nineties, I believe. I seem to recall an actor quit rather than work with him after a swordfight scene became a little bit too real (I _think_ Nicol threw his sword at him, or perhaps used the blade too rigorously, or in some other way was scarily unprofessional – but don’t quote me, I’m vamping here). And yes I know I could wiki/Google this in a second but I’m almost half asleep as I write this.
(All right, i looked it up. It was him changing the swordfight choreography in _I Hate Hamlet_, causing Evan Handler an injury, I believe.)
To me he was the British Michael Moriarty. Hella talented but too quirky/querulous to be hired.
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> He was also a varied stage actor, and he sang. I saw him onstage in the Boston tryout for Richard Rodgers’ last musical, **Rex** , the life of Henry VIII
Ooh, I saw that production too – opening night on Broadway. Very disappointed though I was only ten, but in fairness I was comparing him to Keith Michell’s Henry VIII, and that’s no easy performance to live up to.
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### Author:  [@blue\_infinity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blue_infinity)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2012, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicol-williamson-dies/610941/4 "2012-01-28T11:58:36Z")
A little clip from [Excalibur](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8mJwgPiarg). Epic stuff.
Rest in peace.
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### Author:  [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2012, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicol-williamson-dies/610941/5 "2012-01-28T12:50:53Z")
Absolutely wonderful actor. I’ll never forget his riveting performance in the 1968 movie [The Bofors Gun](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062746/). It was the first time I became aware of him as an actor and what an introduction! (It was only his third movie though he’d been in television for some years).
He will be sadly missed.
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### Author:  [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2012, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicol-williamson-dies/610941/6 "2012-01-28T15:12:40Z")
No mention of his role in _[Spawn](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120177/)_? I really only knew his role in that and in _Excalibur_.
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### Author:  [@wedgehed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wedgehed)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2012, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicol-williamson-dies/610941/7 "2012-01-28T15:18:28Z")
Didn’t he & Helen Mirren have an epic falling out?
Loved him as Merlin!
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### Author:  [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2012, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicol-williamson-dies/610941/8 "2012-01-28T17:00:03Z")
Quite honestly I thought he was terrible as Merlin in “Excalibur” although it gave the movie a certain edge and is probably the best telling of the Arthurian legends that we will ever get.
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### Author:  [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2012, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicol-williamson-dies/610941/9 "2012-01-28T17:04:03Z")
He also played the murderer in one of the best episodes of Columbo, “How to Dial a Murder”.
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### Author:  [@Damfino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damfino)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2012, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicol-williamson-dies/610941/10 "2012-01-28T20:58:19Z")
He was great as a nasty South African detective in “The Wilby Conspiracy.”
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### Author:  [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2012, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicol-williamson-dies/610941/11 "2012-01-28T21:08:40Z")
I saw him at the debut of Excalibur in Atlanta.
It was incredibly odd to me at the time (I was quite young) when he came sashaying into the theater with a virtual “I am Gay” tag on his head.
It was probably the first time I met a real-life homosexual.
As a tremendous fan of the Merlin character, I can tell you it really freaked me out.
Just being honest. I am over my homophobia now, but then, my goodness, it was very very strange.
Fabulous actor. I am sorry he is gone. I will always remember the steel skullcap. Very cool.
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### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2012, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicol-williamson-dies/610941/12 "2012-01-28T21:44:38Z")
No snark intended, but I honestly thought he had already crossed the Shining River.
I suppose it’s his lifestyle that made me think that; he was one of the Peter Finch/Richard Burton/Robert Shaw/Oliver Reed/Richard Harris school of actors: epic drinkers and smokers and partyboys who still smoked and drank in interviews even in the '90s (Williamson never let one go out; I’m surprised Merlin didn’t smoke cigarettes) and he looked like he was on death’s door in interviews 20 years ago.
OTOH, Peter O’Toole still survives as of this typing and he could match them drink for drink and puff for puff.
In any case, RIP Nicol. _Anáil nathrach, ortha bháis is beatha, do chéal déanaimh_- not exactly sure what it means, but it sounds fitting to send somebody off with.
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### Author:  [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2012, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicol-williamson-dies/610941/13 "2012-01-29T11:38:34Z")
He will always be one of my favorite Sherlock Holmes.
Funny thing, I just watched _The Seven Percent Solution_ last week, still love it!
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### Author:  [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2012, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicol-williamson-dies/610941/14 "2012-01-29T18:52:00Z")
> [@Sampiro](#):
>
> _Anáil nathrach, ortha bháis is beatha, do chéal déanaimh_- not exactly sure what it means, but it sounds fitting to send somebody off with.
More-or-less, in sufficiently graunched-up Old Irish: [Serpent’s breath, charm of death and life, thy omen of making](http://www.evertype.com/misc/charm.html)
I forgot he was Badger in _The Wind in the Willows_, I liked that.
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### Author:  [@Toucanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toucanna)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2012, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicol-williamson-dies/610941/15 "2012-01-29T19:36:19Z")
Very affecting as the vulnerable and love-starved object of Theresa Russell’s interest in [_Black Widow_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090738/) (1987).