Looking for Ben Williams

[Steve Crook]

Some IMDb contributors are looking for information about British actor Ben Williams.



His page on the IMDb has been given the date of birth of Ben Ames Williams, an American author.



The British actor was a character actor / bit part player / extra who rarely progressed above the level of described roles like "taxi driver" or "man selling torches". When he did get a named character he was well down in the cast list.



But he worked on 127 titles through the 1930s, 40s & 50s so it seems a shame that nobody knows anything about him.



He was the "man selling torches" in Contraband (1940). That's in the scene when Conrad Veidt & Valerie Hobson come out of the station onto the blacked out streets of London. In that he looks to be in his 20s or 30s, in 1940.



Any help would be much appreciated



Steve

[John Llewellyn Moxey]

I remember Ben, when we worked on a Paul Temple picture. He seems to pop up in my mind, suggesting we worked together more than once. Ah well...Nice man.



John

[Steve Crook]

I remember Ben, when we worked on a Paul Temple picture. He seems to pop up in my mind, suggesting we worked together more than once. Ah well...Nice man.



John

He had minor roles in Paul Temple's Triumph (1950) and Paul Temple Returns (1950). Were you involved in either of those?



Steve

[John Llewellyn Moxey]

He had minor roles in Paul Temple's Triumph (1950) and Paul Temple Returns (1950). Were you involved in either of those?



Steve

I was 1st Assistant Director on Paul Temples Triumph.

John

[irish1]

I was 1st Assistant Director on Paul Temples Triumph.

John

I have tried over the past 7-8 years to find out what has happened to Ben Williams,but all enquiries

were fruitless! He made 3 films at Southall studios in the 50's hence my interest.

Someone,somewhere must have some info!

Bill Cooke

www.southallfilmstudios.com

[Gerald Lovell]

. . . and finding this



I think this is Ben, playing Claud Eustace Teal's assistant Wilkins, who has a nice line in sarcasm in The Saint in London (1939):

[Steve Crook]

Can any of our librarians help?

Is Ben listed in any directory of actors or anything like that?

He probably wouldn't have been considered famous enough to make the pages of Who's Who



Steve

[John Llewellyn Moxey]

Can any of our librarians help?

Is Ben listed in any directory of actors or anything like that?

He probably wouldn't have been considered famous enough to make the pages of Who's Who



Steve

I found him in Google. Ben Williams (1)

[Steve Crook]

I found him in Google. Ben Williams (1)

Thanks John, but that's the IMDb listing that is where the query started [

We want to know his date of birth

The IMDb listing currently gives a DoB of 1889 which is patently wrong. It is the DoB of Ben Ames Williams, an American author.



Steve

[Geoffers]

Two more screen-grabs of Ben: from The Way Ahead and Waterloo Road. Hopefully. If I've done it right!

[cornershop15]

We want to know his date of birth

The IMDb listing currently gives a DoB of 1889 which is patently wrong. It is the DoB of Ben Ames Williams, an American author.

From The Picturegoer's Who's Who and Encyclopedia (1933, First Edition):



WILLIAMS, Ben



b. 1895. British screen player; 5ft 10 1/2 in. Hobby: most sports.



Films include: Midshipmaid, Return of Raffles, Sally Bishop, Men of Steel, Infatuation.





The first four films were all released in 1932, the last in 1930. None are among his IMDb credits.





I believe I have tracked down two of Ben Williams' appearances, both from 1943.



In The Bells Go Down, he was 'Head of the Rescue Squad'. With him is the future Mrs. Ralph Richardson, Meriel Forbes:



"What was that? Didn't you hear something?"



In The Lamp Still Burns, he was well Unnoticed as an 'Engineer Testing Machine'. The other actor is the 'original' Paul Merton:



"Well you won't find the trouble, the real trouble, unless you shut down."



Seconds later, there's an explosion, which badly injures Stewart Granger and Margaret Vyner (mother of Simon Williams).



As Basil Fawlty once said: "Piece of cake. Now comes the tricky bit ...". Finding Grace Arnold's appearances in both films.



Ben Williams can also be seen in three movies on the Internet Archive: The Stars Look Down, The Way Ahead and Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel.

[Steve Crook]

Thanks for all of that. But was the Ben Williams born in 1895 the same Ben Williams?

None of the films mentioned by Picturegoer are in his list of credits on the IMDb

But the IMDb listing for each of those films doesn't mention anyone called Ben Williams either.

Was he so far down the cast list as to be invisible? Maybe he just had a really tiny role or was just an unidentified and unidentifiable extra? They usually only gave on-screen credits to the major stars in films of the 1930s.



But if that was the case, why would Picturegoer include him in their encyclopaedia?

Maybe he knew the editor of Picturegoer?



Someone born in 1895 would be about 48 in 1943. Does he look that old in The Bells Go Down and The Lamp Still Burns?

Maybe he does. He gave the impression of being quite a bit younger in Contraband (1940). But that was in the dark of the blackout. We didn't get a very good look at him.



Steve

[Geoffers]

Someone born in 1895 would be about 48 in 1943. Does he look that old in The Bells Go Down and The Lamp Still Burns?

Maybe he does. He gave the impression of being quite a bit younger in Contraband (1940). But that was in the dark of the blackout. We didn't get a very good look at him.



Steve

Having re-watched both The Way Ahead and Waterloo Road, he could easily be closer to 50 than 40 in either of them. He is certainly over 40, as I suggested in my original post. I would not argue with 1895 as a DB, though I agree it's a pity that he is not shown in the credits on IMDb in any of those films.



However, in Read All About It (1945), yet another uncredited role, he is "middle-aged man". In Hell Drivers (1957) he looks at least 60. On balance I reckon it's him as born in 1895 and he was also uncredited in those earlier films.

[Gerald Lovell]

The oldest screencap here is 1939 for The Saint in London and Ben certainly looks 44 in that. People tended to look older than their years then as well.

[Steve Crook]

The oldest screencap here is 1939 for The Saint in London and Ben certainly looks 44 in that. People tended to look older than their years then as well.

Yes, before they invented teenagers people went straight from being children to being adults.



Thanks again to all researchers. I've reported this back to the people at the IMDb who were asking about Ben.



Steve

[Euryale]

Can any of our librarians help?

Is Ben listed in any directory of actors or anything like that?

He probably wouldn't have been considered famous enough to make the pages of Who's Who



Steve

I'm not a librarian but an actor called Ben Williams participated in the 1954 radio production of Under Milk Wood with Richard Burton and an apparently all-Welsh cast.



The British Transport film short Snowdrift at Bleath Gill (1955) was narrated by Deryck Guyler and a Ben Williams - you can see it on Youtube. Ben sounds as though he may have the lilt of a Welsh accent to me, and I'm guessing he's the same person who was in UMW. Whether he is also the film actor I don't know, but it seems probable.



Not sure if this gets us any further, except that Ben may have been born in Wales.





E.

[cornershop15]

Information from Answers. com



Ben Williams



Occupation: Actor

Active: '30s-'50s

Major Genres: Crime, Drama



Biography

British character actor Ben Williams first appeared before the cameras in 1935 ( ). Often cast in mystery films (he was a bit shady-looking), Williams showed up in such efforts as Man Without a Face (1935), Whispering Smith Hits London (1951), and The Teckman Mystery (1954). He was also prominently cast in two of RKO's British-filmed Saint series entries, The Saint in London (1939) and The Saint Meets the Tiger (1954). In films until 1958, Ben Williams' range of characters included detectives, butlers, German soldiers, and one or two Beefeater guards. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

[Gerald Lovell]

I think The Saint Meets the Tiger is a 1943 film, not 1954. It features a rather effete Hugh Sinclair as the Saint, but has the bonus of once again including Gordon McLeod in the cast as a marvellous Inspector Teal.

[Euryale]

I've found a Ben Williams listed in the cast for two of Anna May Wong's British films: Tiger Bay (1933) and Java Head (1934).





Ben Williams





E.

[Steve Crook]

Information from Answers. com



Ben Williams



Occupation: Actor

Active: '30s-'50s

Major Genres: Crime, Drama



Biography

British character actor Ben Williams first appeared before the cameras in 1935 ( ). Often cast in mystery films (he was a bit shady-looking), Williams showed up in such efforts as Man Without a Face (1935), Whispering Smith Hits London (1951), and The Teckman Mystery (1954). He was also prominently cast in two of RKO's British-filmed Saint series entries, The Saint in London (1939) and The Saint Meets the Tiger (1954). In films until 1958, Ben Williams' range of characters included detectives, butlers, German soldiers, and one or two Beefeater guards. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

That's why I don't use Answers.com, or the All Movie Guide, unless I have to.

Neither of them are known for their accuracy.

Answers.com just reiterates data from other sites, without checking it

The All Movie Guide only uses a few people for all of their information, and doesn't let you correct any mistakes



It was the ability to correct mistakes and add additional information that first attracted me to the IMDb



Steve