the times | Friday July 31 2020 1GM 51
Register
with the Trustees via video link.
St James’s Palace
30th July, 2020
The Princess Royal, President,
Animal Health Trust, this morning
participated in a Meeting with
Trustees via video link.St James’s Palace
30th July, 2020
The Duke of Kent, President of the
Board of Trustees, Imperial War
Museums, this afternoon held aSt James’s Palace
30th July, 2020
The Earl of Wessex, Trustee, The
Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, this
morning participated in a Meeting
For decades casting directors in
Hollywood were able to say they
wanted “a Fred Willard”, and
everyone would know what they
meant. A Fred Willard was a
genial bore, a vacuous talk-show
host, an amateur with joyfully
misplaced confidence, or a well-
meaning idiot. Often the easiest
solution was to cast “the” Fred
Willard and be done with it.
Scores of the most popular
American movies and sitcoms
of the past 40 years, from
Anchorman to Modern Family,
benefited from his gift for play-
ing the comically clueless; a gift
that stemmed, he said, from the
realisation that everyone had “a
little trap that says: ‘Wait, I
shouldn’t say this — I’ll sound
foolish’.”
At the time, he was playing the
part of a slow-witted announcer
on a spoof talk show entitled
Fernwood Tonight. He cracked
the character once he had that
epiphany, back in 1977. “When I
did that show, I just left the door
open.”
Leaving that door open
allowed many more cringingly
earnest Willard characters to
escape into the public con-
sciousness, often via the medi-
um of spoof documentaries, or
“mockumentaries”, created by
Christopher Guest, the writer-
director. There was the musical
theatre-obsessed travel agent
(who has never travelled) in
Waiting for Guffman (1996); the
pedigree dog show commenta-
tor whose inappropriate, stream
of consciousness remarks (“I
went to one of those obedience
places once... it was all going
well until they spilt hot candle
wax on my private parts”) are
the highlights of Best in Show
(2000); the manager of a folk
band who desperately hopes
that his “catchphrase” will take
off, in A Mighty Wind ( 2003). As
his frequent co-star Harry
Shearer said: “Fred Willard
didn’t ‘steal’ scenes. He just
owned them.”
Even when he was not in front
of a camera, the actor often re-
mained in his well-intentioned
dumb guy persona when he was
in public. On Twitter, following
the announcement of Willard’s
death, the stand-up comedian
Dan Telfer shared his experi-
ence of meeting him backstage
at a TV show; an instantly viral
anecdote which was hailed by
fans as “the Fred Willard of Fred
Willard stories”.
Telfer recalled: “He said to
me, ‘Dan, let me teach you
something I learnt in showbiz.
I’m gonna throw my shoe at you
and if you catch it in time you
can keep it. Not now, when you
least expect it. Be ready.’ Then
he walked away and I never saw
him again.”
Frederick Charles Willard
was born in Cleveland in 1933.
The only child of Frederick
Willard, who worked in finance,
and Ruth Willard, née
Weinman, a housewife, he grew
up in the affluent suburb of
Shaker Heights. His parents, he
later said, were “not fun people”.
In an interview in 2017 for The
Interviews: An Oral History of
Television, an archive, he said
that his sense of humour came
from his aunts and uncle.
“When they came over to our
house, I would just laugh all the
time. They were a little younger
and a little more fun.”
Willard’s original ambition
was to be a baseball player.
However, he was also a natural
performer, “the class clown”,
and an avid radio fan growing up
in the golden age of that medi-
um. Inspired by comedians such
as Bob Hope he started making
up and performing little sketch-
es when he was still at school.
He was 12 years old when his
father died. His mother remar-
ried and Willard was sent to mil-
itary school in Kentucky. “Mom
said: ‘Just look at the crowd
you’re running with. You need
to be sent away to school for
some discipline.’ I sent for some
boarding-school folders. When
I got this one that said Kentucky
Military Institute spent the
winter in Venice, Florida, I
thought: ‘Yeah, that’s the kind of
discipline I need all right’.”
After Kentucky, he attended
the Virginia Military Institute,
where he was part of the base-
ball team, but he came to accept
that his dreams of playing pro-
fessionally were not realistic. He
next enrolled at an acting school
in New York and, inspired by his
love of Abbott and Costello,
went on to start a comedy team
with Vic Grecco, a classmate.
Willard & Grecco became well-Meeting with Mr Matthew
Westerman (Chairman) and Ms
Diane Lees (Director General) via
video link.St James’s Palace
30th July, 2020
Princess Alexandra, Deputy
President, the British Red Cross
Society, this afternoon spoke to
Mrs Anne Taylor (long-serving
volunteer) by telephone to mark the
One Hundred and Fiftieth
Anniversary of the Society.Court Circular
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DAVSON Lady Katherine (Kate) on
2 6th July 2020, aged 82 years. Died
peacefully at home. Beloved wife of Sir
Christopher Davson Bt. Devoted
mother of Sir George Davson Bt.
Grandmother to Emma (and partner
Richard) and Jimi, great-grandmother
to Gene. Following a Private Burial, a
Celebration of Life will be held at a
later date at Canterbury Cathedral.
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desired, to L'Arche (Kent) c/o C. W.
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463508MEITNER
Philip died peacefully on July 23rd
2 020 with his family at his side.
Beloved husband of Anne, loving
father of Paul, Jane and Sarah and
devoted to his grandchildren
Edward, Emily, Alice and Lottie.Private family funeral.CUNNINGHAM Patrick Alan.
Peacefully on 25th July 2020, aged 86,
at home with his family. Most
treasured husband of Sarah, beloved
father of Claire, Angus and Cindy and
grandfather to Becky, Charlie, Abbie,
Hamish and Robbie.Loving brother to
Alastair and the late Kinnaird and the
late Ann. Private cremation.Memorial
service at a later date.HOPTON SCOTT Ann, (née Boul)
passed away peacefully on 27th July
2 020, at Grove Court Woodbridge
Suffolk.Much loved mother of Sarah
and the late Lucinda Aitken.
Grandmother and Great Grandmother.
All enquiries to Tony Brown Funeral
Service, Saxmundham, Suffolk
IP 171 EHSOUTER Julian Brack died
unexpectedly on 23rd July 2020, aged
7 6. He will be much missed by his wife
Rosie, son Alexander, daughter Marina,
daughter in law Anna and grandsons
William and Tommy. Cremation private
but live webcast available, memorial
service at later date. Enquiries to
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26th July 2020, aged 88 in
Southampton General Hospital. The
much loved husband of Stephanie and
father of Robert, Anne, Fiona, Debbie,
Andy, Clemency, Aidan and Octavia. A
legend in his own lifetime. A family
funeral will be held, with a memorial
service to be held, Covid permitting.ADDISON T.M.B. died on July 17th
2 020, aged 37. Major Royal Marines.
Beloved husband to Meda, son of Chris
and Gillie, brother of Harriet and friend
to many. Private funeral today with
memorial to follow at a later date.
Donations to K9-Angels, 5 Apex House,
Thomas St, Trethomas, Caerphilly CF83
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peacefully on 27th July 2020, aged 8 4
after a long illness he endured with
humour. He leaves behind his daughter,
Lucy and son, Rupert and five
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AND MISSL.C.S.DONNER
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Nicholas, son of Mr Jonathan Masters
of Islington, and Mrs Vonney Collard of
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daughter of Mr and Mrs Allan Donner
of Chiswick, London.WOOLF JACK on 11th July 2020, aged
7 7 Died peacefully in his beloved Goa.
Buried in the Sassoon Chinchpokli
Jewish Cemetary in Bombay. Sadly
missed by so many friends and family.
"Goodnight G-d Bless, Sweatheart".
AmenWOUDHUYSENAlice (née Roberts)
died peacefully on 29th July, in Oxford,
aged 94, widow of Lewis, mother of
James and Henry, stepmother of Lizzie,
grandmother, and great-grandmother.
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peacefully on 29th July 2020, aged 94,
Formerly of Ferranti Ltd, dearly loved
husband of Prudence, father of
Katharine, Lucy, Tom and Mike,
grandfather and great-grandfather.
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wife of the late John, mother of Ben,
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beloved wife, sister, mother,
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18th July 2020, aged 69 Deeply missed
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(née Stevenson) and Thomas, a son,
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Fred Willard
Genial Hollywood actor who made his name playing vacuous
bores, well-meaning idiots and overly confident amateurs
known on the coffee house
circuit that was flourishing at
the time and through appearan-
ces on The Tonight Show. When
the act broke up, Willard joined
Chicago’s Second City comedy
troupe for a year. There he de-
veloped the improvisational
skills on which he later drew.
Willard was living in a cheap
New York hotel in the 1960s
when he met his future wife, the
playwright Mary Lovell. The
couple had to rent a TV set from
the manager to watch his televi-
sion appearances. They were
married from 1968 until her
death in 2018, and are survived
by their daughter, Hope Willard
Mulbarger.
In 1969, he met Guest, a
friendship that led to Willard
becoming a key member of
Guest’s informal repertory
company of comic actors who
featured in the string of mocku-
mentaries spawned by his This Is
Spinal Tap (1984), in which many
of them, Willard and Guest in-
cluded, had appeared.
Willard once revealed that his
mother was the inspiration for
his offbeat phrases. “One of her
favourite expressions was ‘Boy,
what you don’t see when you
haven’t got a gun’ — if she saw
anyone dressed strangely or
doing something strangely.” It
was a phrase worthy of many of
his cinematic alter egos.
Unlike them, however, the
real Fred Willard was filled with
doubt. “I love playing guys who
have no worries, no thoughts,
who would just say anything. I
live vicariously through those
characters. I love to be those
clueless characters because in
real life I worry about a lot of
things. It’s kind of a battle to
keep a good sense of humour.”Fred Willard, actor, was born on
September 18, 1933. He died of
undisclosed causes on May 15,
2020, aged 86Fred Willard often maintained his dumb-guy persona in public
ALBERT L ORTEGA/GETTY IMAGES