George Emlyn Williams CBE (26 November, 1905-25 September, 1987), known as Emlyn Williams, was a Welsh dramatist and actor. He was born into a Welsh-speaking, working-class family in Mostyn, Flintshire, Wales. At the age of 11 he won a scholarship to Holywell Grammar School. At the end of his time at the grammar school he won a scholarship to Christ Church, Oxford.

Born George Emlyn Williams in Pen-y-Ffordd, Mostyn, Flintshire in northeast Wales in 1905, he lived in a rural village in which Welsh was spoken until he was 12 years old, when his family moved to an English-speaking town, Connah's Quay. It changed the course of his life as it was there that the teacher Sarah Grace Cooke, recognizing his literary talent, encouraged him and helped him win a scholarship to Oxford. She is immortalized in the character of Miss Moffat in his play, "The Corn is Green." Education enabled him to escape the life at hard labor that was the lot of his people. He attended Christ Church, Oxford and also studied in Geneva, Switzerland. He joined a repertory theater and made his acting debut in 'And So To Bed' in London in November 1927. He eventually became an accomplished stage and screen actor, but it as a playwright that he had his greatest success, eventually writing a score of plays. He had his first theatrical success as a writer with 'A Murder Has Been Arranged'. His play 'Night Must Fall' later made its Broadway debut in September 1936 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre and was made into a movie twice, in 1937 with 'Robert Montgomery' in the lead role of the young psychopath, and later in 1964 with Albert Finney taking over the role. "The Corn is Green" was a Broadway triumph for the great Ethel Barrymore in 1940 and brought Bette Davis another of her 10 Oscar nominations in the 1945 film adaptation. The legendary Katharine Hepburn later played the part of Miss Moffat in a TV movie directed by George Cukor in the 1970s. Williams' plays "Yesterday's Magic," "The Morning Star" and "Someone Waiting" were also performed on Broadway, and he had a success on the Great White Way as an actor himself in a solo performance as Charles Dickens, which he revived twice. He was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for 'A Boy Growing Up' (1958), an adaptation of a work by fellow Welshman 'Dylan Thomas'. The tribal Williams also nurtured the young Welshman Richard Burton (I), whom he directed in his first lead film role in 'The Last Days of Dolwyn' (1949). (Burton's professional stage debut had been in Williams' play "Druid's Rest," and Emyln Williams' son 'Brook Williams' became one of his life-long friends.) In addition to directing and acting in film, Emlyn Williams famously collaborated with the great director Alfred Hitchcock (I). Williams acted in and wrote additional dialog for both the original 'The Man Who Knew Too Much' (1934) and 'Jamaica Inn' (1939). Emlyn Williams wrote two memoirs, "George, An Early Autobiography" (1961), and "'Emlyn: An Early Autography, 1927-1935" (1974), as well as a 1967 non-fiction account of the Moors Murders entitled "Beyond Belief." His 1980 novel "Headlong" was adapted by David S. Ward into the movie "King Ralph" (1991). When he died in 1987, Emlyn Williams had written or co-written 20 screenplays in addition to his 20 plays. As an actor, he had appeared in 41 films and teleplays, plus made numerous appearances on stage.