Willoughby Goddard

Willoughby Wittenham Rees Goddard was born on 4 July 1926 in Bicester, Oxfordshire, England, and worked as an actor for more than four decades before retiring in 1987. His distinctively rotund physical presence became a recognizable feature of his work across British television and film.

Goddard made his Broadway appearance in 1963 in Oliver!, playing Mr. Bumble in the original Broadway production of the musical. The role connected directly to work he had done the previous year on British television, where he had portrayed the same character in a 1962 television adaptation of Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist. His stage work also included originating the role of Cardinal Wolsey in the West End production of Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons.

On British television, Goddard accumulated a substantial body of work in recurring and regular roles. From 1958 to 1959 he appeared as the villain Landburgher Gessler across all 39 episodes of The Adventures of William Tell. He then played Sir Geoffrey in The Man in Room 17, a series that ran for two seasons of 13 hour-long black-and-white episodes in 1965 and 1966. Later, he was cast as Sir Jason Toovey, head of the Department of Public Prosecutions and Reeder's superior, in The Mind of Mr. J.G. Reeder, a 16-episode series based on short stories by Edgar Wallace, with its first season airing in 1969 and its second in 1971.

His film career spanned from 1950 through the mid-1980s and included appearances in The Million Pound Note, Carry On Cruising, The Wrong Box, The Charge of the Light Brigade, Jabberwocky, and Young Sherlock Holmes, among many others. His final screen credit was the 1987 television production Porterhouse Blue, after which he retired from acting. Goddard died on 11 April 2008 at the age of 81 and was buried in Teddington Cemetery.