John Williams (actor)

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For other persons named John Williams, see John Williams (disambiguation).

John Williams (April 15, 1902 – May 5, 1983) was a British stage, film, and television actor.

Born in The Chalfonts in Buckinghamshire, England, he began acting on the Broadway stage in 1924 and went on to appear in thirty more Broadway plays over the next four decades. He first acted in Hollywood films in 1930, debuting in director Mack Sennett's The Chumps. In his career he appeared in more than forty movies and also made more than forty guest appearances on television shows. He was part of the regular cast for the 1967 season of the family comedy, Family Affair.

Outside of his movie career, Williams gained fame as the star of a television commercial for 120 Music Masterpieces, a four-LP set of classical music excerpts from Columbia Records. This became the longest-running nationally seen commercial in U.S. television history, for 15 years from 1969 to 1984. It began, "I'm sure you all recognize this lovely melody as 'Stranger in Paradise.' But did you know that the original theme is from the Polovetzian Dance No. 2 by Borodin?" The commercial became so familiar that it was spoofed by Bill Murray on Saturday Night Live.

In 1953 Williams was awarded a Tony Award for Best Supporting or Featured Actor (Dramatic) for his role as Chief Inspector Hubbard in "Dial M for Murder" on Broadway. When Alfred Hitchcock took over the script to make a movie of the play in 1954, he cast Williams for the same role.

The handicapped Williams also played in several of Hitchcock's TV-shows, so in "Back for Christmas" (1956) [1], "Whodunit" (1956), "Wet Saturday" (1956) and "Banquo’s Chair" (1959).

One of his last appearances was in Columbo: Dagger of the Mind (1972) aside to Peter Falk.