William Hall

Published Monday 23 June 2008 at 16:15 by Patrick Newley

William Hall’s career as a film critic and broadcaster spanned 50 years. A former president of the Critic’s Circle, he was the film critic for the London Evening News from 1959 until its closure in 1980 and during his time with the paper, interviewed many of Hollywood’s biggest stars including John Wayne, Charlie Chaplin, Spencer Tracy, Clint Eastwood and Elizabeth Taylor. He was famous for his byline, ‘The man the big stars talk to’.

He travelled widely and in 1969 was one of the few British journalists ever to gain an exclusive interview with Elvis Presley. Presley, who Hall described as ‘slow-talking but not slow-witted’, revealed that he wanted to tour Britain: “William, you tell those folks back home that I’m planning to come there real soon. I know I have got some good fans there.”

The tour never materialised but Hall had a front page story.

Four years later Hall travelled to Tahiti in the hope of interviewing the reclusive Marlon Brando. Brando’s wife, Tarita, let Hall into the house where the legendary actor was asleep in bed. When he awoke he threatened to punch Hall on the nose.

“Gamely I put the questions the world wanted to know as we performed a kind of dance around the room. I was back pedalling. Brando was leading. ‘Did you know, Marlon, that Last Tango in Paris is banned in several countries?’ ‘I don’t care’, said Brando, ‘Get out!’. He waved his fist and stormed back into seclusion. It was an awesome performance.”

Hall was born in 1935 in Highgate, London. His father, William, was a stockbroker and his mother, Audrey, a portrait painter who exhibited at the Royal Academy.

He was educated at Highate School and had aspirations to be a journalist as a child. At 15, he sold his first story to a local paper. In 1953 he joined the Fulham Chronicle as a cub reporter and within two years became the paper’s film critic.

In 1959 he was appointed film critic for the London Evening News. He frequently travelled to film festivals all over the world and while in Hollywood in 1969 was unexpectedly asked to cover the Apollo 13 drama. He filed his story over the phone and later became a close friend of astronaut Neil Armstrong.

After the Evening News closed, Hall turned to writing showbusiness biographies of stars such as Michael Caine, Norman Wisdom, Frankie Howerd and James Dean. He also wrote a biography of Robert Maxwell and ghosted several autobiographies.

Always immaculately dressed, he was a keen sportsman and a popular member of the Savage Club where he was in demand as a self-deprecating and often very funny raconteur.

He had recently been working on his own autobiography, Hall of Fame. He had been suffering from cancer and died on May 20, 2008. He is survived by his wife Jean, a son and a daughter.