Alexander Williams

Alexander "Alex" Williams (born October 18, 1967 in London) is an English film animator and cartoonist. He is the son of animator Richard Williams.

Early life

He played the voice of Tiny Tim in his father's 1971 television adaptation of A Christmas Carol.^[1] He was educated at Westminster School, Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts, and Merton College, Oxford.

Career

He and Graham Francis Defries are co-creators of the comic strip Queens Counsel. It is a satire on law and lawyers, which has appeared in the law pages of The Times newspaper since 1993. It is written under the pseudonyms Steuart and Francis.^[2][3]

A number of collections of the cartoons have been published, by Robson Books and Harper Collins.^[4]

Other cartoon strip work includes Writer's Block, published in the books section of The Times from 2005-6, and The Dealers, published in The Tatler from 1994-95.^[5] He also illustrated the characters for the Baby Barista blog by fellow ex-barrister Tim Kevan.^[6]

He was a barrister at 12 King's Bench Walk Chambers in London before leaving in 1996 to pursue a full-time career in film animation.^[7]

His work as an animator includes Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988), The Princess and the Cobbler (1993), The Lion King (1994), Quest for Camelot (1998), The Iron Giant (1999), The Road to El Dorado (2000), Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002), Piglet's Big Movie, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003), Robots (2005) and Open Season (2006).^[1]

Williams has also worked on visual effects in Racing Stripes (2005), Monster House (2006), Underdog (2007), Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Inkheart (2008), Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009), Marmaduke (2010) and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010) ^[1]

He has contributed designs to Deckchair Dreams, a fundraising event organised by the Royal Parks Foundation in support of the London Royal Parks.^[8] In 2012 he contributed a design for The Big Egg Hunt, a charity fundraiser billed as the world's largest ever Easter egg hunt.^[9]

He lives in London and teaches a Character animation course at Escape Studios^[10]

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 ^[11]
• The Queen's Counsel Official Lawyers' Handbook, Robson Press October 2011^[12]

References

• Alexander Williams at the Internet Movie Database Retrieved June 2011
• News item at Variety.com Retrieved June 2011
• News item at Hollywood Reporter^{[dead link]} Retrieved June 2011
• News item at AWN.com Retrieved June 2011

Notes

External links

• Williams' Official Website Retrieved June 2011
• Queen's Counsel Official Website Retrieved June 2011
• Escape Studios animation course Retrieved June 2011
• Lawyers Uncovered - a collection of Queen's Counsel cartoons at Amazon.com Retrieved June 2011
• Queen's Counsel at The Times Online (subscription only) Retrieved June 2011
• Interview with Williams at Skwigly magazine Retrieved June 2011
• Interview with Williams at Flip magazine Retrieved June 2011
• transcript of lecture by Williams at Imagine Magazine website Retrieved June 2011