Heathcote Williams, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Heathcote Williams

English poet, actor and dramatist

Date of Birth: 15-Nov-1941

Place of Birth: Helsby, England, United Kingdom

Date of Death: 01-Jul-2017

Profession: screenwriter, actor, writer, poet, author, sculptor

Nationality: United Kingdom

Zodiac Sign: Scorpio


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About Heathcote Williams

  • John Henley Heathcote-Williams (15 November 1941 – 1 July 2017), known as Heathcote Williams, was an English poet, actor, political activist and dramatist.
  • He wrote a number of book-length polemical poems including Autogeddon, Falling for a Dolphin and Whale Nation, which in 1988 became, according to Philip Hoare, "the most powerful argument for the newly instigated worldwide ban on whaling." Williams invented his idiosyncratic "documentary/investigative poetry" style which he put to good purpose bringing a diverse range of environmental and political matters to public attention.
  • His last published work, American Porn was a critique of the American political establishment and the election of President Donald Trump: Publication date was the date of Trump's inauguration (20 January 2017).
  • In June 2015, he published a book-length investigative poem about the "Muslim Gandhi", Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, "Badshah Khan".As well as being a playwright and screenwriter, Williams appeared in a number of independent and Hollywood films and was among the celebrity guests in the last episode of season 4 of Friends, '"The One With Ross's Wedding"'.
  • He played Prospero in Derek Jarman's The Tempest (1979) and appeared in several "arthouse" films, including Orlando (1992), as well as Hollywood movie Basic Instinct 2 (2006).
  • Al Pacino played the part of a Williams fan in a spoof arts documentary, Every Time I Cross the Tamar I Get into Trouble.
  • Williams also wrote lyrics, collaborating with Marianne Faithfull among others. Williams was a keen naturalist and discovered a new species of honey-producing wasp in the Amazon jungle, an event he recorded in a book of poems called Forbidden Fruit.
  • Williams was a magician and a member of The Magic Circle.
  • He wrote a TV play called What the Dickens! about Charles Dickens's penchant for performing magic shows.
  • Bob Hoskins taught him fire eating.
  • When he went to demonstrate his new found talent to then girlfriend Jean Shrimpton, he accidentally set himself alight on her doorstep. Williams was a leading activist in the London squatting scene in the 1970s and ran a squatters "estate agency" called the "Ruff Tuff Cream Puff".
  • In 1977 he and a couple of hundred fellow squatters established the "state" of Frestonia in Notting Hill and declared independence from Britain.
  • The then Shadow Chancellor, Geoffrey Howe, wrote to express his support and Williams was appointed UK Ambassador.
  • Frestonia lasted almost a decade and had its own institutions and postage stamps. Williams spray-painted graffiti on the walls of Buckingham Palace as a protest against the Queen signing Michael X's death warrant while there was no capital punishment in the UK.
  • In the early 1970s, his agitational graffiti were a feature on the walls of the then low-rent end of London's Notting Hill district.
  • The final paragraph of Williams' New York Times obituary summed up his philosophy: "If poetry isn't revolutionary, it's nothing," he told Saira Viola from the web publication Gonzo Today in 2015.
  • "Poetry is heightened language, and language exists to effect change, not to be a tranquilizer."

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