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Willoughby Wittenham Rees Goddard (4 July 1926 – 11 April 2008) was an English actor whose trademark rotund figure was well known on television and in films for more than 40 years.
Willoughby Goddard was a British actor who played villains in TV shows and movies. He was born in 1926, married to Ann Phillips, and died in 2008.
Willoughby Goddard used his rotund figure most effectively in portraying archetypal screen baddies for 40 years. The actor even openly acknowledged himself as "one of...
Apr 15, 2008 · Willoughby Goddard, who has died aged 81, was a character actor whose girth made him a commanding presence on stage and television for 40 years.
Actor. 3 July 1926 to 10 April 2008. Active on stage and television, Goddard lent menace or good humour to a variety of roles. The most memorable came in Drake’s Progress (1957), the villainous Gessler in the Adventures Of William Tell (1958-9), Mr Bumble in a BBC series of Oliver Twist (1962) and Tom Sharpe’s Porterhouse Blue (1987).
Willoughby Goddard was born in Bicester, Oxfordshire, in 1926, He made his first appearance on the stage at the Oxford Playhouse in 1943 as The Steward in Shaw’s Saint Joan. After a period in repertory, especially the Bristol Old Vic, he first appeared in London.
Born Willoughby Rittenham Reese Goddard in Bicester, Ovfordshire in 1926, he made his stage debut in a 1943 revival of Shaw's Saint Joan, and spent the next few seasons in repertory -- his performance in Donald Pleasence's 1952 play Ebb Tide elicited favorable comparisons with Robert Morley.
