John Osbourne once called him the greatest actor since Brando. He was the definitive Merlin, giving John Boorman's Excalibur its otherwordly impact. But now Nicol Williamson has died in poverty at the age of 73.
Starting out in theatre, Williamson had his breakthrough with Osbourne's famous play Inadmissable Evidence. He appeared in a screen version in 1968 and went on to star in a dozen more films, with a notable turn as Little John alongside Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn in Robert And Marian. He excelled as Hamlet and as Sherlock Holmes, but it was as Merlin that he became a screen legend. Cast opposite Helen Mirren on the basis that they hated each other in real life, he invested the role with a force of personality that has never been equalled.
Although he was briefly married to the actress Jill Townsend, Williamson spent the last few decades of his life alone and reportedly fell on hard times after his screen career dried up in the Nineties. He is survived by his son Luke.
