Alexander Williams (born 18 October 1967 in London) is an English film cartoonist and animator. He is the son of animator Richard Williams. He has worked on many animated films, and is the author of the ''

Queen's Counsel In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel (post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of a queen, is a lawyer (usually a barrister o ...

'' cartoon strip in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'', for which he was awarded the Cartoon Art Trust Award for Strip Cartooning in October 2017.

Early life

Williams was born in London in 1967, the son of Canadian animator Richard Williams. He played the voice of Tiny Tim in his father's 1971 television adaptation of ''

A Christmas Carol ''A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas'', commonly known as ''A Christmas Carol'', is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & Hall in 1843 and illustrated by John Leech. ''A Christmas C ...

''.Anderson, Ross, ''Pulling a Rabbit Out of a Hat'', University Press of Mississippi (2019), p.86 He was educated at

Westminster School (God Gives the Increase) , established = Earliest records date from the 14th century, refounded in 1560 , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , head_label = Hea ...

Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts Camberwell College of Arts is a public tertiary art school in Camberwell, in London, England. It is one of the six constituent colleges of the University of the Arts London. It offers further and higher education programmes, including postgra ...

, and

Merton College Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 1260s when Walter de Merton, ch ...

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

Career

In 1987 Williams was 20 years old and in his first year of studies at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

when he started work as an

in-betweener The In-Betweener is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Publication history The character first appeared in ''Warlock'' #10 (Dec. 1975) and was created by Jim Starlin. Fictional character biograph ...

on ''

Who Framed Roger Rabbit ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' is a 1988 American live-action/animated comedy mystery film directed by Robert Zemeckis, produced by Frank Marshall and Robert Watts, and loosely adapted by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman from Gary K. Wolf's 1 ...

'', working under animator

Simon Wells Simon Finlay Wells (born 1961) is an English film director of animation and live-action films. He is the great-grandson of author H. G. Wells, and is best known for directing ''The Prince of Egypt'' with Brenda Chapman and Steve Hickner. Ea ...

and later as an assistant animator to Marc Gordon-Bates. Williams initially worked unpaid as an intern, and was later invited by producer Patsy de Lord to work on the film full-time.Anderson, Ross, ''Pulling a Rabbit Out of a Hat'', University Press of Mississippi (2019), p.289 The university agreed to his taking a suspension of studies for a year. The following year, in 1988, he joined the Disney-MGM Studio in Orlando, Florida, working on the short film RollerCoaster Rabbit.Anderson, Ross, ''Pulling a Rabbit Out of a Hat'', University Press of Mississippi (2019), p.145

Cartoons

In 1993 Williams and

Graham Francis Defries Graham Francis Defries is a partner in the law firm Goodwin Procter. He is the co-creator with Alexander Williams of the Queens Counsel (comic strip) featured in the law pages of The Times since 1993. Personal life Defries earned his B.A. at Ox ...

created the comic strip ''

'', a satire on law and lawyers, published in the law pages of ''

'' newspaper, under the pseudonyms Steuart and Francis. At the time, Williams and Defries were working as research assistants for

Members of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

at the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

. A number of collections of the cartoons have been published by

Robson Books HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Corp ...

and

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...

. Williams also drew ''

Writer's Block Writer's block is a condition, primarily associated with writing, in which an author is either unable to produce new work or experiences a creative slowdown. Mike Rose found that this creative stall is not a result of commitment problems or th ...

'', a cartoon strip published in the books section of ''

'' from 2005–6, and '' The Dealers'', published in ''

The Tatler ''Tatler'' is a British magazine published by Condé Nast Publications focusing on fashion and lifestyle, as well as coverage of high society and politics. It is targeted towards the British upper-middle class and upper class, and those interes ...

'' from 1994–95. He also illustrated the characters for the Baby Barista blog by fellow ex-barrister Tim Kevan.

Animation

Williams was a

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

at 12 King's Bench Walk Chambers in London before leaving in 1996 to pursue a full-time career in film animation, joining Warner Bros Feature Animation, where he was lead animator on the villain "Ruber", voiced by

Gary Oldman Gary Leonard Oldman (born 21 March 1958) is an English actor and filmmaker. Known for his versatility and intense acting style, he has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and three British Academy ...

, in ''

Quest for Camelot ''Quest for Camelot'' (released internationally as ''The Magic Sword: Quest for Camelot'') is a 1998 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Warner Bros. Feature Animation and directed by Frederik Du Chau and very loosely based on t ...

''. Williams gave the character a "nervous twitch", a "wrestler's strut" and "big hands with broken nails that look creepy on close-ups". His work as an animator includes ''

'' (1988), '' The Princess and the Cobbler'' (1993), ''

The Lion King ''The Lion King'' is a 1994 American animated musical drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 32nd Disney animated feature film and the fifth produced during the Disney Renaissance, it ...

'' (1994), ''Quest for Camelot'' (1998), ''

The Iron Giant ''The Iron Giant'' is a 1999 American animated science fiction film produced by Warner Bros. Feature Animation and directed by Brad Bird in his directorial debut. It is based on the 1968 novel '' The Iron Man'' by Ted Hughes (which was publis ...

'' (1999), ''

The Road to El Dorado ''The Road to El Dorado'' is a 2000 American animated adventure film produced by DreamWorks Animation and released by DreamWorks Pictures. It was the third animated feature produced by DreamWorks. The film was directed by Eric "Bibo" Bergeron a ...

'' (2000), '' Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron'' (2002), ''

Piglet's Big Movie ''Piglet's Big Movie'' is a 2003 American animated musical comedy-drama film released by Walt Disney Pictures on March 21, 2003. The film features the characters from the ''Winnie-the-Pooh'' books written by A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard, and i ...

'', '' Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas'' (2003), ''

Robots "\n\n\n\n\nThe robots exclusion standard, also known as the robots exclusion protocol or simply robots.txt, is a standard used by websites to indicate to visiting web crawlers and other web robots which portions of the site they are allowed to visi ...

'' (2005) and '' Open Season'' (2006).Williams at IMDB.com
Retrieved June 2011 Williams has also worked on

visual effects Visual effects (sometimes abbreviated VFX) is the process by which imagery is created or manipulated outside the context of a live-action shot in filmmaking and video production. The integration of live-action footage and other live-action foota ...

in ''

Racing Stripes ''Racing Stripes'' is a 2005 American sports comedy family film directed by Frederik Du Chau. The film was produced by Andrew A. Kosove, Broderick Johnson, Lloyd Phillips and Edward L. McDonnell, based on a script written by David Schmidt, Stev ...

'' (2005), '' Monster House'' (2006), ''

Underdog An underdog is a person or group in a competition, usually in sports and creative works, who is largely expected to lose. The party, team, or individual expected to win is called the favorite or top dog. In the case where an underdog wins, the ...

'' (2007), '' Beverly Hills Chihuahua'', ''

Inkheart ''Inkheart'' (german: Tintenherz) is a 2003 young adult fantasy novel by Cornelia Funke, and the first book of the ''Inkheart'' series, which was continued with ''Inkspell'' (2005) and ''Inkdeath'' (2007). The novel won the 2004 BookSense Boo ...

'' (2008), ''

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ''Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince'' is a fantasy novel written by British author J. K. Rowling and the sixth and penultimate novel in the ''Harry Potter'' series. Set during Harry Potter's sixth year at Hogwarts, the novel explores t ...

'' (2009), ''

Marmaduke ''Marmaduke'' is a newspaper comic strip revolving around the Winslow family and their Great Dane, Marmaduke, drawn by Brad Anderson from June 1954 to 2015. Publication history The strip was created by Anderson, and sold to the John F. Dille ...

'' (2010) and '' The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader'' (2010) He has contributed designs to Deckchair Dreams, a fundraising event organised by the

Royal Parks Foundation The Royal Parks Foundation is a registered charity established in 2003 (registered charity number 1097545). It is the charity that helps support London's eight London's Royal Parks for everyone to enjoy, now and in the future. The charity's patro ...

in support of the London

Royal Parks The Royal Parks of London are lands that were originally used for the recreation, mostly hunting, of the royal family. They are part of the hereditary possessions of The Crown, now managed by The Royal Parks Limited, a charity which manages ...

. In 2012 he contributed a design for The Big Egg Hunt, a charity fundraiser billed as the world's largest ever

Easter egg hunt An egg hunt is an Eastertide game during which decorated eggs or Easter eggs are hidden for children to find. Real hard-boiled eggs, which are typically dyed or painted, artificial eggs made of plastic filled with chocolate or candies, or foil- ...

Teaching

He lives in London and teaches at various academies and studios including Escape Studios, however now tutors animation at Bucks New University in High Wycombe as a senior lecturer. Williams has also founded the world's first online based MA in animation at Buckinghamshire New University, beginning in September 2015. In 2012 he founded an online animation school, Animation Apprentice.

Published work

* ''Queen's Counsel – A Libellous Look at The law'', Robson Books, 1995 * ''Queen's Counsel – Judgment Day'', Robson Books, 1996 * ''Queen's Counsel – Laying Down the Law'', Times Books, 1997 * ''The Times – Best of Queen's Counsel'', Times Books, 1999 * ''Lawyers Uncovered – Everything you always wanted to know but didn't want to pay £500 an hour to find out'', JR Books, 2007 * ''101 Ways to Leave the Law'', JR Books, September 2009 * ''101 Uses for a Useless Banker''. JR books, September 2009 * ''The Queen's Counsel Official Lawyers' Handbook'', Robson Press October 2011 * ''The Queen's Counsel Lawyer's Omnibus'', Law Brief Publishing, 1 October 2013 * ''For a Few Guineas More - The Legal Year in Cartoons'', Law Brief Publishing, 13 December 2019Retrieved 3 December 2019
/ref>

References

* Nelker, Gladys P, The Clan Steuart, Genealogical publishing, 1970 * Mazurkewitch, Karen, ''Cartoon Capers, The Adventures of Canadian Animators'', MacArthur & Co, Toronto (1999) * Retrieved June 2011 * ''The Jester'' Monthly Magazine of The Cartoonists' Club of Great Britain, Issue 463, March 2013
News item at Variety.com
Retrieved June 2011
News item at Hollywood Reporter
Retrieved June 2011
News item at AWN.com
Retrieved June 2011

Retrieved July 2017