John Williams 1903-1983

John Williams was a great British character actor, whom we all recognize as the inspector in Hitchcock's 1954 film Dial M For Murder, Sabrina's (rather unlikely) chauffeur father in Billy Wilder's Sabrina (1954) and as the beleaguered insurance agent (H.H. Hughson) in Hitchcock's 1955 film To Catch A Thief. Always perfectly dressed and poised, we see him in stills above, from the top, in the first picture, with Robert Cummings and in the second with Jessie Royce Landis, playing mother, Mrs Stevens ("Nobody calls me Jessie anymore"), to Grace Kelly's Francie Stevens ("Come on, Jessie") and in the third picture, he is with Cary Grant as reformed jewel thief, John Robie, "The Cat".

Jessie Royce Landis also played the mother of Cary Grant's character Roger O Thornhill in Hitchcock's 1959 film North By Northwest (in which appears the famous non-suit, as I like to think of it; a piece of clothing as anonymous as the character who wore it, although moderns seem to go crazy over it).