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William chatting to Hollywood legend John Wayne |
Remembering William Hall, our leading man at the movies
Sad death of New Journal film critic who befriended the stars of Hollywood
NEW Journal film critic William Hall, who died on Tuesday, aged 72, was an old-school Fleet Street reporter who, he estimated, “travelled over three million miles and filed over one million words” in a career that spanned six decades.
The stars he befriended reads like a who’s who of iconic figures from the past 50 years: from Elvis Presley, Clint Eastwood, Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster and Charlton Heston, to John Travolta, Sylvester Stallone and Tom Cruise.
He became Michael Caine’s biographer, spotting his talent long before he was a big name. Caine said of William on the publication of the book: “I first met William when he made the long trek out to South Africa to cover the film Zulu.
“That film was my big break, and you don’t forget the people who noticed you in the early days.”
Biographies of Norman Wisdom, James Dean, Robert Maxwell and Charlotte Church among others followed.
William was born in 1935 in Highgate. His father, also called William, was a stockbroker who stood in St Pancras for the Liberal Party.
His mother Audrey was a portrait painter, exhibiting at the Royal Academy and was an accomplished sportswoman – she won a Wimbledon doubles title in the 1920s.
William was educated at Highgate School, and by the age of 15 sold his first story to the Hornsey Journal. But his father urged him to join him in the City. William did so – for nine months, long enough to learn how file his own tax returns. Then his father tried to put him off journalism by insisting he got up at 6.30 each morning to practise his shorthand – his 100 words per minute stood him in good stead.
In 1953, he joined the Fulham Chronicle as a cub reporter, and within two years he was writing the paper’s film column.
He then moved north, for a stint on the Glasgow Evening Citizen, before returning to London in 1959 to take up a post at the London Evening News, where his by-line photograph was accompanied with the credit: “The man the big stars talk to.”
He was to stay on the daily until the paper was amalgamated with the Evening Standard in 1980. He was the first English journalist to cover the Apollo 13 drama in 1969. He received a call in Hollywood from his editor saying that something was afoot with one of NASA’s space craft and could he get to Houston?
William filed the first despatches over the telephone about the unfolding events and befriended Neil Armstrong.
Of all the famous people he met, Neil and John Wayne were the only two he ever asked for an autograph from.
When the Evening News closed in 1980, William turned to writing biographies and freelance articles. He covered the Academy Awards and Cannes Film Festival for 18 years, was President of The Film Critics’ Circle and a lifetime member of BAFTA.
It was William who was first asked by William Hill to provide the odds for betting on the Oscars.
Away from work, he regularly went to Lord’s to watch Middlesex. He established the International Journalists Ski Club, which had the attraction of not just good skiing, but was also used as an excuse to visit Eastern Bloc countries and forge contacts with Soviet reporters.
Described by friends as not a particularly talented sportsman, his sheer zest for thrills meant he was happy to try a host of dangerous pursuits including scuba diving and parachuting. More prosaic interests included chess – he once managed to arrange a game with Anatoly Karpov.
William Hall is survived by his wife Jean, two children Will and Juliette and grand-daughter Camille. His funeral will be held at 2.30pm on Wednesday (May 28) at Highgate School Chapel, North Road, N6.
DAN CARRIER
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