Actor known for his Shakespearean roles, but who also appeared on TV and in films including Winstanley and Orlando
Jerome Willis, who has died at the age of 85, was an actor who might have described himself, without bitterness, as an "attendant lord". He was a natural Shakespearean, in possession of a strong physique and the ability to speak verse with enviable confidence. In a distinguished career spanning almost 60 years, he brought to every part he undertook a perceptive intelligence that illuminated even the smallest cameo. He also became a familiar face on television from 1974 to 1978 as Charles Radley, the deputy governor of Stone Park prison in Within These Walls, with Googie Withers as his boss.
Jerome began his career as a disc jockey, newsreader and actor by turns, posted to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1946 for his national service in the Raf and serving in communications for the Ceylonese station Radio Seac.
Jerome Willis, who has died at the age of 85, was an actor who might have described himself, without bitterness, as an "attendant lord". He was a natural Shakespearean, in possession of a strong physique and the ability to speak verse with enviable confidence. In a distinguished career spanning almost 60 years, he brought to every part he undertook a perceptive intelligence that illuminated even the smallest cameo. He also became a familiar face on television from 1974 to 1978 as Charles Radley, the deputy governor of Stone Park prison in Within These Walls, with Googie Withers as his boss.
Jerome began his career as a disc jockey, newsreader and actor by turns, posted to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1946 for his national service in the Raf and serving in communications for the Ceylonese station Radio Seac.
- 1/27/2014
- by Paul Bailey
- The Guardian - Film News
A striking presence on stage and in the great days of British film, she played the prison governor of TV's Within These Walls
Followers of postwar cinema may well recall Googie Withers's striking presence in It Always Rains On Sunday, an unusually intense film for the Ealing Studios of 1947. A bored wife, she gives shelter to an ex-lover, now a murderer on the run, played by John McCallum, soon to be her real-life husband. The lovers were shown as unsympathetically as they might have been in French film noir, and the weather was bad even by British standards.
What Withers, who has died aged 94, brought to that performance was to define her strength in some of her most powerful roles. Too strong a face and too grand a manner prevented her being thought conventionally pretty, but she was imposingly watchable because of an obvious vigour and sexuality. Thus equipped,...
Followers of postwar cinema may well recall Googie Withers's striking presence in It Always Rains On Sunday, an unusually intense film for the Ealing Studios of 1947. A bored wife, she gives shelter to an ex-lover, now a murderer on the run, played by John McCallum, soon to be her real-life husband. The lovers were shown as unsympathetically as they might have been in French film noir, and the weather was bad even by British standards.
What Withers, who has died aged 94, brought to that performance was to define her strength in some of her most powerful roles. Too strong a face and too grand a manner prevented her being thought conventionally pretty, but she was imposingly watchable because of an obvious vigour and sexuality. Thus equipped,...
- 7/16/2011
- by Dennis Barker
- The Guardian - Film News
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.