British born actor William Gaunt, also known as Bill to his friends, has been known to viewers throughout his several decades of work including his infamous role of "Richard Barrett" of "The Champions".
Born William Charles Anthony Gaunt at Pudsey, Yorkshire, England on the 3rd of April 1937, he is the son of a lawyer and a grandson of a former bank manager. He was the first in his family to break away from the "white-collar professional family" and venture into the often times insecure world of acting.
William, who stands 6'1", is a good looking Englishman with now-greying brown hair and striking light blue eyes. It was those eyes that could pierce right through the enemy on "The Champions" when "Richard" needed to get someone's attention.
William's early schooling included attendance at the Moravian School which was also the same school actress Diana Rigg had attended. He would find this out later while appearing in a TV play with her just before she hit fame in "The Avengers". Nearly five decades later, the two of them still appear together onstage.
At age 13, William went to the Giggleswick School in the Pennines where he stayed until he was age sixteen. During these years he began drama training while on school break, with the Otley Little Theatre group where, at the age of 14 he made his first stage appearance with the amateur drama group. Sporting a long black mustache, he played the part of the Emperor of China. He had but one line of dialogue in the play.
Another play presented by the group was "Wuthering Heights", which won an award at a Bronte Festival. William played "Heathcliffe", and at the time he had to darken his much lighter hair with boot polish which infuriated the girl playing opposite him. She complained that the polish ruined her party dress.
Actress Esme Church who ran the Princess Theatre in Bradford, was impressed by William's performance of "Heathcliffe". She spoke to him after the show and offered him free tuition which he accepted. He went to see her twice a week to receive the lessons which helped him to become the actor he remains today.
By the time he left school, he was playing juvenile leads with the senior group at Otley, but hadn't yet made up his mind on a future career in acting professionally. At age 16 1/2 he took a job as an office boy with a local estate agent which lasted eight months. During that time, he would hang around the Harry Hanson's repertory company watching the players at work. Getting the feel of the professional theatre, he was finally offered a job as an assistant stage manager.
He remained at the theatre for eighteen months of twice-nightly weekly repertory. Six months later, he went on stage for the first time as a waiter. Other roles followed in scores, mostly playing the part of an old man-mostly butlers, complete with false crepe hair and lines on his face. Later, he reached juvenile lead status.
By this time he was called to National Service. He went into the Army as a Gunner in the Royal Artillery and was later promoted to Bombardier. He served in Malta and Cyprus where he expanded his acting experience by appearing in Army shows. Along with Donald Douglas (who later became a professional actor), he formed a group which traveled around to various Army camps.
Heading back to England to await release from the Army, he decided to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. While awaiting admittance, he worked in repertory for a bit at Morecambe. He then studied for two years at RADA where in his fifth term he was auditioned for the Garfield Weston Fellowship training course at Waco University at Dallas, TX.
During his eight months in Dallas, William played in "Hamlet", "The Importance of Being Earnest" and other classics. He was noticed by Warner Brother's executives who took him to Hollywood. But nothing much happened there. He played a boy from Boston in a "Wagon Train" segment and did a pilot for a series that failed to materialize. Disillusioned after two months of hanging around Hollywood doing practically nothing, he was offered a seven year contract but decided it better to turn it down as he wished to return to England. He did so, arriving back in London in 1959 with hardly a penny left to his name.
Although William had never worked in London, he managed to land a job through agent Vincent Shaw within a couple of days. Mr. Shaw sent him down to Worthing where he did a summer season at the Theatre Royal, Bath. He remained at Bath for three months as the leading man playing in "Tea and Sympathy" and other plays. TV casting director Monty Lyon discovered him there which led to his TV debut later on in "Probation Officer". He played a police officer on that show and learned that he knew very little about TV technique.
Also while in London, he appeared in "St. Joan" at the Richmond Theatre, and then went into repertory at Salisbury to appear in such plays as "Death of a Salesman", "Henry IV", and "Arsenic and Old Lace". In the autumn of 1960, he did another bit of television work and had parts in "Deadline Midnight", "Harpers West One", "Afternoon of a Nymph" and other plays and was also appearing as Dennis Price's A.D.C. in the "Colonel Trumper's Private War" series when the Equity dispute broke out and jobs were at a premium.
During this run of doing some television, he was put up for the part of Bob Marriott in "Sergeant Cork" but the strike put those plans on hold. He was also offered a running role in "Z Cars" but turned it down. He did, however, later play in one of the episodes. He went back again to repertory at Cheltenham where he played such roles as the King in "Man for All Seasons" and Julius Caesar in "Anthony and Cleopatra" and also had his first experience of directing a play with "Present Laughter".
For a year, he alternated between TV roles in London and work in Cheltenham, where he starred in "Billy Liar", "Ross" and "The Caretaker". He then went to Coventry where he directed "The Amorous Prawn" and then the "Sergeant Cork" project came around again. For the next three years he played the part of a Victorian policeman on that show.
During breaks between the "Sergeant Cork" episodes, from time to time he went back to Cheltenham where he played the King in "Beckett" and directed "Pygmalion" and "The Importance of Being Earnest". He also played in two Edgar Wallace films, one as a policeman and the other as the villain, appeared with Honor Blackman in "The Avengers", co-starred along with Diana Rigg (as his wife) in "Women, Beware Women", and did other TV shows. Then, in the spring of 1966 when "Sergeant Cork" ended, he returned to Cheltenham for "Luther" and "The Poker Session".
He then decided it was time for a much needed vacation where he headed for Italy for three months to just relax and see the sights. Afterwards, he returned to England to tour for seven weeks in "Doctor in Love" and to appear in an episode of "The Saint". After the tour, he was asked to test for a role in "The Champions" and while waiting for the series to enter production, he appeared as a crook in "Softly, Softly" and also rejoined his previous boss, John Barrie from "Sergeant Cork" and did an oddly titled show called "In a Punt Under a Haystack on the River Mersey". After that run, "The Champions" went into filming.
"The Champions", which gave William international fame in the role of "Richard Barrett", was filmed in 1967. He co-starred along with Stuart Damon as "Craig Stirling", Alexandra Bastedo as "Sharron Macready", and Anthony Nicholls as "Tremayne". It was a series about three international agents who worked for the agency, NEMESIS, who were endowed with superhuman powers which were bestowed upon them in a near fatal plane crash in the mountains of Tibet by a secret people who lived there. The series only lasted for thirty episodes and was filmed primarily on the lot of British Elstree Studios in London. It was premiered in the United States and other countries in 1968 and then rerun over several years. There is still quite a following of "Champions" fans to this date.
