Tom Watson (1932-2001) was a Scottish-born stage, television and film actor.
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Thomas Welsh Watson was born on the 21 March 1932 at Auchinleck, Ayrshire, Scotland. His family subsequently moving to Cambuslang, Lanarkshire, he attended the Hamilton Academy school where he excelled in amateur dramatics. [1]
Following National Service with the Royal Scots, Watson joined the Rutherglen 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. [2]
By 1960, Watson had moved to London, appearing regularly in BBC 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. [2]
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. [2]
His stage appearances included The Catch at the Royal Court Theatre 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. [2]
Watson’s film work included Silent Scream (1990 film) ; The Big Man (1990), and Alan Rickman's The Winter Guest.
Watson also produced a volume of poetry titled Dark Whistle, published in 1997. [3]
Tom Watson died 18 August 2001 at St. Andrew's Memorial Hospital. [1][2]