WILLIAM FAWCETT
September 8th, 1894 -- January 25th, 1974

Above: William Fawcett as the preacher in the Twilight Zone episode "The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank."

Prune-faced, querulous-voiced William Fawcett is unique among serial character actors. Herbert Rawlinson, William Farnum, Forrest Taylor, and almost all the other top cliffhanger supporting players learned their trade in silent films and were already screen veterans when the sound serials arrived. Fawcett, on the other hand, never appeared on screen until 1946, the year some hold to be the start of the cliffhanger's decline. Old Bill's great specialty was playing wizened old sourpusses--whether good guys or bad, his characters were nearly always grumping at somebody or something. Fawcett made such an impression in his serials and B-westerns that he was able to become one of the busiest character actors of the fifties and sixties. Though he was far behind his predecessors in time, William was not at all behind them in talent.

Old Bill was born William Fawcett Thompson in High Forest, Minnesota. The several church plays organized by his father, a Methodist minister, gave William a chance to try out his acting talents at an early age; reportedly, he could be so vivid in his parts that it would make his mother start crying. After serving in World War 1 (and being awarded the Medaille d'Honneur by the French government) William returned to the US and began acting in small repertory companies. In 1925 he married, and shortly after gave up acting for the study of acting. William gained a PHD in Elizabethan drama from the University of Nebraska in 1936, and returned to Minnesota to teach Theatre at the University of Michigan. He held his professorship there for ten years, then headed for Hollywood to take up active performing once again. After dropping his last name, the newly christened "William Fawcett" made his screen debut as a crooked judge named "Town" in an Eddie Dean PRC B-western called TUMBLEWEED TRAIL. His first serial came the next year at Columbia in THE SEA HOUND, a South Seas adventure starring Buster Crabbe. Fawcett had the minor role of Andre, a French beachcomber who would provide Crabbe with important information--in exchange for a couple pounds of tobacco--on various occasions throughout the serial. It was a small but colorful part that gave promise of Fawcett performances to come.

TEX GRANGER (Columbia, 1948) cast old Bill as a weaselly express clerk named Lowery, who did the dirty work of outlaws Smith Ballew and I. Stanford Jolley. William's part in SUPERMAN (Columbia, 1948) was absolutely miniscule: you only got a quick glimpse of him as he handed a paper to star Kirk Alyn. However, BATMAN AND ROBIN (Columbia, 1949) gave him his juiciest role yet as Professor Hammil, a cranky, paranoid old inventor whose remote control machine was sought by the villainous Wizard. Batman and Robin (Robert Lowery and John Duncan) half suspected Hammil of being the Wizard himself, a suspicion that the audience shared when they were shown the supposedly wheelchair-bound Hammil "electrifying" himself periodically and gaining the power to walk around normally. (SPOILERS AHEAD) However, Fawcett's behavior proved to be blameless--he merely worked in a secret laboratory during his periods of temporary mobility. Though Hammil was hardly likeable, in Fawcett's hands he nevertheless became an unusually distinctive and memorably irascible "scientist" character.

Above: William Fawcett temporarily relieves his paralysis via his electrical chair in BATMAN AND ROBIN (Columbia, 1949).

ADVENTURES OF SIR GALAHAD (Columbia, 1949), one of the oddest cliffhangers conceived by Columbia serial producer Sam Katzman, featured Fawcett in an even bigger part as Merlin the Magician. However, the serial Merlin wasn't the wise adviser of Arthurian legends; rather, he was a confusingly inconsistent semi-villain in the tradition of serial characters like the Indian chief in PERILS OF THE ROYAL MOUNTED. Sometimes Fawcett's Merlin would be doing his best to destroy Galahad (George Reeves) with various magical spells; then, he would suddenly lend some aid to Galahad in the knight's search for the stolen sword Excalibur. Though the screenwriters never did seem to decide whether their Merlin was a villain or a hero, the larger-than-life role was a lot of fun for an old stage trouper like Fawcett, who delivered the pseudo-medieval dialogue in grand style and seemed to get a big kick out of it.

Above: Nelson Leigh (seated, as King Arthur), Marjorie Stapp (as Guinivere), and William Fawcett (third from left) with the Knights of the Round Table in ADVENTURES OF SIR GALAHAD (Columbia, 1949).

Above: George Reeves (left) consults William Fawcett in the ADVENTURES OF SIR GALAHAD (Columbia, 1949).

Bill played his first unequivocally honest role in CODY OF THE PONY EXPRESS (Columbia, 1950). As Ezra Graham, proprietor of a Pony Express way station and father of the heroine (Peggy Stewart), old Bill was a tough and feisty old coot, but did his best to help Pony Express rider Dickie Moore (as a young Bill Cody) and Army undercover agent Jock Mahoney to round up a gang of outlaws trying to grab control of the settlers' lands.

Above: Outlaws get the drop on William Fawcett and Peggy Stewart in CODY OF THE PONY EXPRESS (Columbia, 1950).

PIRATES OF THE HIGH SEAS (Columbia, 1950), a complicated but understandable South Seas adventure, was Fawcett's next serial. William's part in the action was smaller in this serial, but he figured prominently for three chapters--7, 8, and 9. He played Ben Wharton, a recluse on a remote island who was sought out by Buster Crabbe to help in discovering the location of a fortune in stolen diamonds. SPOILERS AHEAD. When Crabbe, Tristram Coffin, and Tommy Farrell were captured by natives, the tribe's masked witch doctor saved Crabbe from execution. The witch doctor turned out to be Fawcett, who used his position as the natives' honorary leader to rescue their sacrificial victims. However, Bill refused to help Crabbe find the engraved cigarette case that held the key to the diamonds' location--Fawcett actually had the case, but was keeping it till he could find out just what it was worth. This proved fatal for old Bill, however, as the mysterious Van Housdorf, the war criminal who had originally stolen the diamonds and was now out to recover them, murdered Wharton to keep the case's location a secret.

Above: Buster Crabbe (left) asks William Fawcett for the duplicate to the mysterious cigarette case Crabbe is holding in this still from PIRATES OF THE HIGH SEAS (Columbia, 1950).

William had a cameo as the Mayor of Metroplis in ATOM MAN VS. SUPERMAN (Columbia, 1950) and then got another big part in ROAR OF THE IRON HORSE (Columbia, 1951). IRON HORSE dealt with the attempts of Baron Karl Uhlrich (George Eldredge), an exiled European nobleman, to stop the railroad from entering his outlaw domain. Mahoney and Fawcett came to the aid of railroad man Hal Landon and his sister Virginia Herrick, and ultimately got the railway through. Having previously played villains, "red herrings", and fathers, Fawcett now added another important serial role to his repertoire: the sidekick. As Rocky, a grizzled old miner, Bill provided competent but humorous support for hero Jock Mahoney in a style reminiscent of Raymond Hatton.

Above: Jock Mahoney (left) and William Fawcett prepare for action in ROAR OF THE IRON HORSE (Columbia, 1951).

MYSTERIOUS ISLAND (Columbia, 1951), a Katzman adaptation of a Jules Verne novel that was as fully off the wall as ADVENTURES OF SIR GALAHAD had been, gave Fawcett a small bit as Mr. Jackson, who appeared in the land-bound Civil War segment of the story before Union Captain Harding (Richard Crane) and his companions took flight (via balloon) for the mysterious island of the title. Next, CAPTAIN VIDEO (Columbia, 1951), going far afield from the Old West and the American Civil War, cast old Bill as Alpha, an outer-space ruler whose planet was under attack by the tyrannical Vultura (Eugene Stutenroth). Captain Video (Judd Holdren) and his partner Ranger (Larry Stewart) came to the rescue of the wise but beleaguered Alpha and his planet multiple times during the course of the serial.

KING OF THE CONGO (Columbia, 1952), Buster Crabbe's last serial, gave William another "wise man" part as the High Priest of the Rock Tribe, a group of natives who rescued army pilot Crabbe when he crashed in the jungle and aided him against Communist spies. BLACKHAWK (Columbia, 1952) had old Bill as Dr. Rolph, an inventor who was kidnapped by Laska (Carol Forman) and her spy ring, who wanted to learn the secret of his death ray. The scrappy Fawcett did his best to escape, at one point trying to blast the gang with his ray. Ultimately, Blackhawk (Kirk Alyn) rescued the doctor and the invention was safely placed in the hands of the government.

GREAT ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KIDD (Columbia, 1953), an unusual historical serial, featured Bill as a scheming old innkeeper who ran the tavern on the island hideout used by the various pirate crews and tried to cut in on all their plotting. He made his first and only non-Columbia serial, CANADIAN MOUNTIES VS. ATOMIC INVADERS, the same year. However, the Republic release only availed itself of Bill's talents in the first chapter, casting him as an old backwoodsman named Murphy--a small part, but one tailor-made for Fawcett.

Above: William Fawcett reports some suspicious activity to the mounted Bill Henry in CANADIAN MOUNTIES VS. ATOMIC INVADERS (Republic, 1953).

After another small "old timer" bit (a miner in Columbia's 1954 Mountie serial, GUNFIGHTERS OF THE NORTHWEST), Fawcett took on his final serial role in RIDING WITH BUFFALO BILL (Columbia, 1954). For the second and last time he played a sidekick, and, as in ROAR OF THE IRON HORSE, he was an old miner named Rocky. Marshall Reed, as Buffalo Bill Cody, came to the aid of Fawcett and the other miners and ranchers, who were being harassed by outlaws (led by Michael Fox and Jack Ingram), but it was Fawcett who came up with the idea of having Reed disguise as the Riding Terror, a masked hero who had cleaned out outlaws in the area years before (this device enabled Columbia to use stock footage from 1940's DEADWOOD DICK). Fawcett helped Reed cover up his identity and backed him up whenever it was necessary, all the while enlivening the proceedings with his crustily colorful attitude. Though BUFFALO BILL came at the very end of the serial era, it was pretty entertaining, thanks to the work of Reed --and the work Fawcett, who all in all chose a good "farewell" cliffhanger vehicle.

Old Bill's career was far from over when he concluded his stint in serials and B-westerns. In addition to his sometimes small but always vivid roles in A-movies, he began to pop up in major character parts on TV western shows such as THE LONE RANGER and THE GENE AUTRY show on almost a regular basis. In 1955, he landed the regular role of grizzled ranch hand Pete Wilkey on the popular show FURY, starring Peter Graves and Bobby Diamond, and stayed an important part of the show till it ended in 1960. William then began to pop up on every TV show on the air--both westerns and non-westerns. By the time he finished his last movie, the made-for-TV film THE MANHUNTER, in 1972, he had racked up almost 200 television credits, to say nothing of his movie work. Two years later, he passed away from circulatory problems at his home in Sherman Oaks, California.

William Fawcett's serial career can best be summed up with the old saying "Better late than never." Though he got a late start in the serial world, he easily mastered the art of cliffhanger character acting, and created a persona totally new and original. It was undoubtedly his serial and B-western work that gave him the training needed for his long and prolific career in TV, but the cliffhanger form owes more to Mr. Fawcett than he owes to it. He was born to act, as his mother could have told you at any one of those church pageants way back in Minnesota.