William Lucas

William Thomas Clucas (14 April 1925 – 8 July 2016), better known as William Lucas, was an English film, theatre, radio and television actor.

William Lucas was born in Manchester, England. Before he became an actor, he was a commercial traveller, laundry hand, cook, farm labourer, and long-distance lorry driver, and served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War.

Lucas earned a scholarship to the Northern Theatre School, and trained there. He then became an assistant stage manager at the Chesterfield Civic Theatre in the late 1940s. Lucas had begun his stage career by the summer of 1950 in Chesterfield and was still active in the theatre in late 1990 in Run for Your Wife.

His first film acting role was in the film Portrait of Alison (1955), and he later appeared in many Hammer Film Productions such as The Shadow of the Cat (1961).

He starred in a string of British crime b-movies such as Payroll, The Break, Breakout, and Calculated Risk. He usually played strong villain-types (lead villains) but he would also play unhinged, weak characters as well.

Lucas is probably best known for his role in The Adventures of Black Beauty (1972–1974) as Dr. James Gordon, and in the BBC series Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes as Inspector Lestrade in the episode "A Study in Scarlet" (1968). He also appeared in The Bill, Doctor Who, Last of the Summer Wine, Sir Francis Drake (TV series) and the ITV soap opera Coronation Street.

In 1954, Lucas married Doreen Moorehouse (whose stage name was Rowena Ingram). They had two children. After they divorced he married Camilla Idris-Jones.

Lucas died in England on 8 July 2016.