Tom Watson (actor)
Encyclopedia
Tom Watson was a Scottish-born stage, television and film actor.
, Ayrshire
, Scotland
. His family subsequently moving to Cambuslang
, Lanarkshire
, he attended the Hamilton Academy
school where he excelled in amateur dramatics.
Repertory
, a semi-professional theatre company and in 1956 he joined the Byre Theatre
, St Andrew's, Scotland, before moving on to Perth Repertory Theatre, there meeting his future wife, the actress Joyce Bain.
radio repertory and in 1964 was cast in the BBC television production of Martin Chuzzlewit
.
During his long career, Watson was to go on to appear in numerous television hit series, including Dixon of Dock Green
; Dr Finlay's Casebook; Taggart
; Prime Suspect; Hamish Macbeth
; Heartbeat (UK TV series); 2000 Acres of Sky; Inspector Rebus
and Peak Practice
. In Your Cheatin' Heart by John Byrne (Scottish playwright), he played six different parts in a single television drama.
Following his return to Scotland in 1970, Watson worked regularly for the BBC
and Granada television
, including appearances as Mobilis in Cedric Messina
's production of The Physicist and the Miller in the The Canterbury Tales
for the BBC
for which he also appeared in such television series and dramas as The Standard, in 1978; Hunting Tower; The Camerons; The Nightmare Man
and Govan Ghost Story, in 1989.
Upstairs in London; Tom Stoppard
's Every Good Boy Deserves Favour
and as Stanley Evening in Bugler Boy for the Traverse Theatre
in Edinburgh. At the Edinburgh Festival
he appeared in 1970 in Middleton's The Changeling (play)
, directed by Richard Eyre
; Sir David Lindsay's Ane Satire of the Thrie Estates (1984) and in A Wholly Healthy Glasgow, directed by Richard Wilson (Scottish actor), in 1987. Watson’s theatre credits were to continue with appearances in Sam Shepard
's Fool for Love (play)
at the Royal National Theatre
and in the West End of London
; In Time of Strife at the Glasgow Citizens Theatre; parts in Macbeth
and Hamlet
at the Royal Lyceum Theatre
, Edinburgh; in Born Yesterday
at the Royal Exchange, Manchester
; appearances in Bill Bryden
's The Ship (at Glasgow Docklands, 1990); The Treatment and Some Voices, at the Royal Court Theatre
; in The Government Inspector at the Almeida Theatre
, Islington (1997-8); and in Victoria for the Royal Shakespeare Company
in 2000.
; The Big Man
(1990), and Alan Rickman
's The Winter Guest
.
Watson also produced a volume of poetry titled Dark Whistle, published in 1997.
Tom Watson died 18 August 2001 at St. Andrew's Memorial Hospital.
Early life
Thomas Welsh Watson was born on the 21 March 1932 at AuchinleckAuchinleck
Auchinleck ; is a village five miles south-east of Mauchline, and a couple of miles north-west of Cumnock in East Ayrshire, Scotland.Near the village is Auchinleck House, past home of the lawyer, diarist and biographer James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck.Auchinleck has much been associated...
, Ayrshire
Ayrshire
Ayrshire is a registration county, and former administrative county in south-west Scotland, United Kingdom, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine. The town of Troon on the coast has hosted the British Open Golf Championship twice in the...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. His family subsequently moving to Cambuslang
Cambuslang
Cambuslang is a suburban town on the south-eastern outskirts of Glasgow, Scotland. It is within the local authority area of South Lanarkshire. Historically, it was a large rural Parish incorporating nearby hamlets of Newton, Flemington, and Halfway. It is known as "the largest village in...
, Lanarkshire
Lanarkshire
Lanarkshire or the County of Lanark ) is a Lieutenancy area, registration county and former local government county in the central Lowlands of Scotland...
, he attended the Hamilton Academy
Hamilton Academy
Hamilton Academy was a school situated in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Scotland.Described as "one of the finest schools in Scotland" in the Cambridge University Press County Biography of 1910, Hamilton Academy featured in the Scottish Secondary Teachers' Association Magazine article series on...
school where he excelled in amateur dramatics.
Career
Following National Service with the Royal Scots, Watson joined the RutherglenRutherglen
Rutherglen is a town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. In 1975, it lost its own local council and administratively became a component of the City of Glasgow. In 1996 Rutherglen was reallocated to the South Lanarkshire council area.-History:...
Repertory
Repertory
Repertory or rep, also called stock in the United States, is a term used in Western theatre and opera.A repertory theatre can be a theatre in which a resident company presents works from a specified repertoire, usually in alternation or rotation...
, a semi-professional theatre company and in 1956 he joined the Byre Theatre
Byre Theatre
The Byre Theatre is a theatre in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland. The original Byre Theatre was founded in 1933 by Alexander B Paterson, a local journalist and playwright, with help from a theatre group made up from members of Hope Park Church, St Andrews....
, St Andrew's, Scotland, before moving on to Perth Repertory Theatre, there meeting his future wife, the actress Joyce Bain.
Television
By 1960, Watson had moved to London, appearing regularly in BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
radio repertory and in 1964 was cast in the BBC television production of Martin Chuzzlewit
Martin Chuzzlewit
The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit is a novel by Charles Dickens, considered the last of his picaresque novels. It was originally serialized between 1843-1844. Dickens himself proclaimed Martin Chuzzlewit to be his best work, but it was one of his least popular novels...
.
During his long career, Watson was to go on to appear in numerous television hit series, including Dixon of Dock Green
Dixon of Dock Green
Dixon of Dock Green was a popular BBC television series that ran from 1955 to 1976, and later a radio series. Despite being a drama series, it was initially produced by the BBC's light entertainment department.-Overview:...
; Dr Finlay's Casebook; Taggart
Taggart
Taggart is a Scottish detective television programme, created by Glenn Chandler, who has written many of the episodes, and made by STV Productions for the ITV network...
; Prime Suspect; Hamish Macbeth
Hamish Macbeth (TV series)
Hamish Macbeth is a television series made by BBC Scotland and first aired in 1995. It is loosely based on a series of mystery novels by M. C. Beaton . The series concerns a local police officer, Constable Hamish Macbeth in the fictitious town of Lochdubh on the north coast of Scotland. The titular...
; Heartbeat (UK TV series); 2000 Acres of Sky; Inspector Rebus
Inspector Rebus
The Inspector Rebus books are a series of detective novels by the Scottish author Ian Rankin. The novels, centred on the title character Detective Inspector John Rebus, are mostly based in and around Edinburgh.-Content and style:...
and Peak Practice
Peak Practice
Peak Practice is a British drama series about a GP surgery in Cardale — a small fictional town in the Derbyshire Peak District — and the doctors who worked there. It ran on ITV from 10 May 1993 to 30 January 2002 and was one of their most successful series at the time...
. In Your Cheatin' Heart by John Byrne (Scottish playwright), he played six different parts in a single television drama.
Following his return to Scotland in 1970, Watson worked regularly for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
and Granada television
Granada Television
Granada Television is the ITV contractor for North West England. Based in Manchester since its inception, it is the only surviving original ITA franchisee from 1954 and is ITV's most successful....
, including appearances as Mobilis in Cedric Messina
Cedric Messina
Cedric Messina was a South African born British television producer and director for the BBC of mainly classic drama...
's production of The Physicist and the Miller in the The Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the 14th century. The tales are told as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together on a journey from Southwark to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at...
for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
for which he also appeared in such television series and dramas as The Standard, in 1978; Hunting Tower; The Camerons; The Nightmare Man
The Nightmare Man
The Nightmare Man is a science fiction and horror television serial, produced by the BBC in 1981.An adaptation of the novel Child of Vodyanoi by David Wiltshire, The Nightmare Man is set on a small Scottish island with the population gripped by fear following a series of savage murders and the...
and Govan Ghost Story, in 1989.
Stage
His stage appearances included The Catch at the Royal Court TheatreRoyal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre...
Upstairs in London; Tom Stoppard
Tom Stoppard
Sir Tom Stoppard OM, CBE, FRSL is a British playwright, knighted in 1997. He has written prolifically for TV, radio, film and stage, finding prominence with plays such as Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Professional Foul, The Real Thing, and Rosencrantz and...
's Every Good Boy Deserves Favour
Every Good Boy Deserves Favour
Every Good Boy Deserves Favour is a stage play by Tom Stoppard with music by André Previn. It was first performed in 1977. The play criticizes the Soviet practice of treating political dissidence as a form of mental illness. Its title derives from the popular mnemonic used by music students to...
and as Stanley Evening in Bugler Boy for the Traverse Theatre
Traverse Theatre
The Traverse Theatre is a theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was founded in 1963.The Traverse Theatre commissions and develops new plays or adaptations from contemporary playwrights. It also presents a large number of productions from visiting companies from across the UK. These include new plays,...
in Edinburgh. At the Edinburgh Festival
Edinburgh Festival
The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...
he appeared in 1970 in Middleton's The Changeling (play)
The Changeling (play)
The Changeling is a Jacobean tragedy written by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley. Widely regarded as "among the best" tragedies of the English Renaissance, the play has accumulated a significant body of critical commentary....
, directed by Richard Eyre
Richard Eyre
Sir Richard Charles Hastings Eyre CBE is an English director of film, theatre, television, and opera.-Biography:Eyre was educated at Sherborne School, an independent school for boys in the market town of Sherborne in north-west Dorset in south-west England, followed by Peterhouse at the University...
; Sir David Lindsay's Ane Satire of the Thrie Estates (1984) and in A Wholly Healthy Glasgow, directed by Richard Wilson (Scottish actor), in 1987. Watson’s theatre credits were to continue with appearances in Sam Shepard
Sam Shepard
Sam Shepard is an American playwright, actor, and television and film director. He is the author of several books of short stories, essays, and memoirs, and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979 for his play Buried Child...
's Fool for Love (play)
Fool for Love (play)
Fool for Love is a play written by American playwright/actor Sam Shepard.-Plot:The "fools" in the play are battling lovers at a Mojave Desert motel. May is hiding out at said motel when an old childhood friend and old flame, Eddie. Eddie tries to convince May to come back home with him and live in...
at the Royal National Theatre
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
and in the West End of London
West End of London
The West End of London is an area of central London, containing many of the city's major tourist attractions, shops, businesses, government buildings, and entertainment . Use of the term began in the early 19th century to describe fashionable areas to the west of Charing Cross...
; In Time of Strife at the Glasgow Citizens Theatre; parts in Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
and Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
at the Royal Lyceum Theatre
Royal Lyceum Theatre
The Royal Lyceum Theatre is a 658 seat theatre in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, named after the Theatre Royal Lyceum and English Opera House, the residence at the time of legendary Shakespearean actor Henry Irving. It was built in 1883 by architect C. J. Phipps at a cost of UK£17,000 on behalf...
, Edinburgh; in Born Yesterday
Born Yesterday
Born Yesterday is a play written by Garson Kanin which premiered on Broadway in 1946, starring Judy Holliday as Billie Dawn. The play was adapted intoa successful 1950 film of the same name.- Plot :...
at the Royal Exchange, Manchester
Royal Exchange, Manchester
The Royal Exchange is a grade II listed Victorian building in Manchester, England. It is located in the city centre on the land bounded by St Ann’s Square, Exchange Street, Market Street, Cross Street and Old Bank Street...
; appearances in Bill Bryden
Bill Bryden
William Campbell Rough Bryden CBE is a British stage- and film director and screenwriter.-Biography:...
's The Ship (at Glasgow Docklands, 1990); The Treatment and Some Voices, at the Royal Court Theatre
Royal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre...
; in The Government Inspector at the Almeida Theatre
Almeida Theatre
The Almeida Theatre, opened in 1980, is a 325 seat studio theatre with an international reputation which takes its name from the street in which it is located, off Upper Street, in the London Borough of Islington. The theatre produces a diverse range of drama and holds an annual summer festival of...
, Islington (1997-8); and in Victoria for the Royal Shakespeare Company
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...
in 2000.
Film and poetry
Watson’s film work included Silent Scream (1990 film)Silent Scream (1990 film)
Silent Scream is a 1990 biopic film about convicted murderer Larry Winters, in which Robert Carlyle made his film debut. It was directed by David Hayman.- Plot :...
; The Big Man
The Big Man
This article is about the film. For the saxophonist with that nickname, see Clarence Clemons.The Big Man is a 1990 film produced by Miramax Films. It starred Liam Neeson, Joanne Whalley and Billy Connolly and the film's score was composed by Ennio Morricone. It was featured in FlixMix's Ultimate...
(1990), and Alan Rickman
Alan Rickman
Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman is an English actor and theatre director. He is a renowned stage actor in modern and classical productions and a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company...
's The Winter Guest
The Winter Guest
The Winter Guest was British actor Alan Rickman's debut as a director, and stars Emma Thompson and Phyllida Law.-Plot:Set in Scotland on one wintry day, the film focuses on eight people: a mother and daughter, Elspeth and Frances ; two young boys skipping school, Sam and Tom ; two old women who...
.
Watson also produced a volume of poetry titled Dark Whistle, published in 1997.
Tom Watson died 18 August 2001 at St. Andrew's Memorial Hospital.
External links
- http://uk-tv-guide.com/celebrity/Tom+Watson/13850 Television guide and credits, Tom Watson