In Memoriam : Nicol Williamson (1938-2011)

Scottish actor Nicol Williamson has died aged 73, reports The Daily Telegraph. 

According to his son Luke, the stage and screen actor died of esophageal cancer on December 16.

He was best known for his roles in Excalibur and The Exorcist III, as well as a long and much acclaimed stage career.

Williamson was a star turn as Merlin in John Boorman's dark folk fantasy Excalibur, in which he was reluctantly cast alongside former lover Helen Mirren. Boorman's mischief-making paid off: the pair share the best scenes in the film, with Mirren's Morgana and Williamson's wizard playing wittily off against each other. Williamson and Mirren had worked together once before, although much less auspiciously, in a radical staging of Macbeth. The Hamilton-born actor made his name in John Osbourne's Inadmissible Evidence for which he received great acclaim and, later, a Tony award on Broadway. Osborne later described him as the greatest actor since Brando, a claim another playwright, Samuel Beckett, would corroborate. He was an actor, said Beckett, "touched by genius".

Richard Lester's Robin And Marian, brought a much-valued opportunity to work with Sean Connery  and Audrey Hepburn, and his portrayal of a cocaine addicted Sherlock Holmes in Nicholas Mayer's The Seven Per-cent Solution is one of the best interpretation of the character ever. 

The actor, who was known as a straighforward, private man, leaves his son, Luke. "He was the most honest, funny and intelligent man I have ever had the pleasure of knowing," writes Luke on Williamson's official website. "He was my father and words cannot adequately express how proud I am of him."