I�m Still �Young� To Act- George Williams

At age 86, most people would have resigned themselves to old age and slowed down in their activities, but not seasoned actor, George Williams, who says he is still active and ready to take up roles in movies.

�I may look old to some people but I am very fit to take up roles when movie producers call me. As an actor, you should be able to act even when you are old,� he told Showbiz in an interview last week Friday.

Cornered during the premiere of the movie, Fate Of The Nation in which he featured at the British Council in Accra, Williams, usually referred to as Uncle George, explained that his preference was for roles that would best suit his age.

To prove his activeness, the Ultimate Paradise star said he is currently working on three movies but has been very selective in which production he goes on.

�Although I receive a lot of calls from producers to take up roles, I normally reject it because most production houses don�t do good movies. I would rather take my time and feature in a good movie than just be in any movie,� he said.

Known for distinguished roles in movies such as Genesis Chapter X, Dogo Yaro, Bloody Kids, Mama and TV series, Ultimate Paradise, Uncle George said he feels sad for our recent movies. To him, they are not the best.

While excited that he still had the energy to be on set and location, he was nonetheless disappointed at the movies being churned out now, feeling sorry particularly, for the story lines.
�I am surprised producers are not doing movies that tell stories of the history of Ghana. More so, some Ghanaian actors cannot be called actors because what they do on the screens is no acting at all.�
For a man who has seen it all in the industry, he was not hesistant to pick his best actor in this generation, easily naming Majid Michel as the best Ghanaian actor around now.

�I will always go for Majid because he is doing incredibly well and I wish some of the actors will learn from him,� he added.

With his eloquence and articulation, Uncle George spent most of his working time as a broadcaster, changing roles between the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), then as the head of presentation for the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service (SLBS) and also having a stint with the Nigeria Broadcasting Corporation. He also did some freelance jobs for Liberian Broadcasting Corporation.

Uncle George was born in 1929 to a famous lawyer, Francis Awoonor Williams whose ancestors are from Sierra Leone and his late mom, Nora Rosemond Awoonor Williams.

He started his secondary education at the Aggrey Memorial School in the Central Region, then to the Achimota Secondary School before ending up at Adisadel College in 1941.

After leaving Adisadel College in 1945, he became a Lab Assistant at the Physics Lab in Achimota for almost two years.
In 1947, he left for England where he enrolled at the Balham & Tooting College of Commerce.

Uncle George, with some of his colleagues, started performing gigs in nightclubs just as they played piano and drums for some of the top-gun dancers and musicians of the time.

He continued to explore and further acquainted himself with all the areas of showbiz. He then went to the Buddy Bradley's School of Stage Dancing at the west end of London, one of the famous schools at the time, to learn how to dance but surprisingly, ended up acting rather.Uncle George is married with five children.

Source: Graphic Showbiz