Charlie Williams (comedian)

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This article is about the British comedian. For other people called Charles or Charlie Williams, see Charles Williams.

Charlie Williams
MBE
Charlie Williams appearing on The Comedians in the 1970s.
Personal information
Full name Charles Adolphus Williams
Date of birth (1927-12-23)23 December 1927
Place of birth Royston, south Yorkshire, England
Date of death 2 September 2006(2006-09-02) (aged 78)
Place of death Barnsley, Yorkshire, England
Position(s)
Centre half
Youth career
Upton Colliery
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1948–1959 Doncaster Rovers 151 (1)
1959–196? Skegness Town
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Charles Adolphus Williams,

Second World War,[1] and later became Britain's first well-known black stand-up comedian.[2]

He became famous from his appearances on

Yorkshire accent
.

Early life and football career

Williams was born in Royston, a small mining village in Barnsley, south Yorkshire. His father, also Charles, had come to Britain in 1914 from Barbados,[1][2][3] and enlisted in the Royal Engineers.[2][3]

After the

First World War, his father settled in Royston, where he sold groceries from a horse and cart, and married a local woman, Frances Cook. His father had been forced to give up his job as a greengrocer as a result of trench foot acquired in France, and depended on National Assistance.[3]

After leaving school aged 14 (when, according to his autobiography Ee-I've Had Some Laughs, his father died), Williams worked at

Nottingham Forest, aged 19. A centre-half
, he played for the first team in 1950, but then remained in the reserves until 1955, when he became an established first team player for four years.

He played 171 times for Rovers in total, but scored only one goal, in a Second Division game away to

Skegness Town[4] in the Midland League
.

He married twice. He was first married to Audrey Crump on 1 April 1957. They had two children. He later married a second time, to Janice, who survived him.

Showbusiness career

You have to understand that was perfect for the time that he appeared. It was a brilliant thing, this black Yorkshireman who played football with Doncaster Rovers, who'd had the wartime experience of white Yorkshire people, who talked like them, who thought like them, but who just happened to be black. And when he came along it was astounding to hear this bloke talking like "Eh up, flower, eh. Hey, have you ever been to supermarket where they have the broken biscuits?". I think it was a huge culture shock for people. And Charlie exploited this to the full.

— Lenny Henry in Windrush – The Irresistible Rise of Multiracial Britain[5]

Following his retirement from football in 1959, Williams tried his hand as a singer in local

Yorkshire accent and his first-hand experience of life in the British working class
made him unmistakable.

Williams' comedy was often at his own expense, and particularly his colour. He used to respond to

coons".[3]

Nevertheless, he was a role model for a new generation of British black comedians, such as Lenny Henry and Gary Wilmot,[7] growing up in the 1970s, when almost all others were white.

He reached the pinnacle of his comedy career in the early 1970s. In 1972, he spent a six-month season at the London Palladium; presented his own show, It's Charlie Williams, on Granada Television; was a subject on This Is Your Life, when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the Batley Variety Club; and appeared at the Royal Variety Performance.

In 1973, he presented a one-off special Charlie Williams Show on

ATV's popular game show The Golden Shot
, along with hostess Wendy King, for a six-month period from late 1973 to early 1974, although he often struggled to hold together a fast moving live show, and it ultimately had a detrimental effect on his career.

In 1976, Williams toured

white minority rule government of Rhodesia had unilaterally declared independence from Britain, which had severed all ties with the Rhodesian government.[9]

By the late 1970s and early 1980s, his brand of humour was becoming old-fashioned, and his career declined. He caused offence to some, and was praised by others, for defending the

trade mark, and for saying that immigrants to the United Kingdom should conform to the British way of life.[2][3]

He retired after a final tour in 1995.

Recordings

In 1972 and 1973 Williams released two singles, That's what I shoulda said (1972) and Smile (1973), released on Columbia.[10] In 1973, he also had an album issued by the label, You Can't Help Liking.......Charlie Williams.[11]

In 1974, he released the pop single Ta Luv, on the Pye Records label, a song taken from The Good Companions musical.

Later life

Williams was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1999 New Year Honours "for charitable services to the community in Yorkshire."[12] He was given a lifetime achievement award at the Black Comedy Awards in 2000, where it was recognised that he had "broken down barriers".[2] In 2004, he was voted Doncaster Rovers' "all-time cult hero" by viewers of the BBC's Football Focus programme.[13] Williams suffered from Parkinson's disease in his later life,[14] and died on 2 September 2006, aged 78.[15]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Bourne, Stephen, Obituary, The Guardian, 4 September 2006.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Obituary, The Times, 4 September 2006.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Obituary, The Daily Telegraph, 4 September 2006.
  4. ^ Brown, Neil. "Doncaster Rovers player details". Retrieved 21 October 2010.
  5. ISBN 0-00-653039-7
    .
  6. ^ Obituary Archived 8 October 2006 at the Wayback Machine, The Independent, 4 September 2006.
  7. ^ "Comic Charlie Williams dies at 78". BBC News. 3 September 2006.
  8. ^ The Charlie Williams Show Archived 25 January 2007 at the Wayback Machine from the BBC Guide to Comedy.
  9. ^ "Rhodesia 1976". YouTube. 31 October 2011. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021.
  10. ^ "Charlie Williams [UK] Discography - UK - 45cat". www.45cat.com. Retrieved 27 February 2021.
  11. ^ Charlie Williams – You Can't Help Liking.......Charlie Williams (1973, Vinyl), retrieved 27 February 2021
  12. ^ UK list: "No. 55354". The London Gazette (1st supplement). 31 December 1998. p. 23.
  13. ^ "Doncaster's cult heroes". BBC Sport. 16 September 2004.
  14. ^ "Charlie Williams dies". Chortle. 3 September 2006. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
  15. ^ "Comic Charlie Williams dies at 78". BBC News. 3 September 2006. Retrieved 25 June 2018.

External links

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