Doug Williams

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Doug Williams

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  • Douglas Williams

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      Dates of existence

      1946 -

      History

      Doug Williams was born in Windsor, Ontario in 1946. He directed his first dramatic film at the age of 18 in 1965. He studied drawing and painting at Arts & Crafts/Wayne State University, photography at OCAD, creative writing at University of Toronto, and is a graduate of London Film School U.K. (formerly London School of Film Technique).
      He is the author of a coming-of-age travel memoir, Promised Lands: Growing Up Absurd in the 1950s and ‘60s. Williams is married to screenwriter Laura Phillips, and has two children.
      His directorial credits include: Overdrawn at the Memory Bank (1984); Best of Both Worlds (1984); Hitler’s Canadians (2007); and many episodes of television shows such as The Phoenix Team (CBC), Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future (Landmark Entertainment), T and T (Nelvana), Mister Dressup Show (CBC), Fraggle Rock (CBC/Jim Henson), Polka Dot Door (TVO), Join In (TVO), The Maximum Dimension (TVO), The Elephant Show (CBC), Eric’s World (CBC), Spread Your Wings (CBC), and two pilots: Great Work If You Can Get It (CBC) and The Wee Wonders (PBS).
      In 2016 Williams began a series of video interviews with comrades and friends from his days in the League for Socialist Action (LSA). He wanted to preserve the memories of the activism of the group. Interviews were conducted all across Canada and included everyone from LSA that Williams could find and that agreed to be interviewed. Williams edited the many hours of video and created the film Let’s Rent A Train (2023).

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      University of Toronto Media Archives

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      Dates of creation, revision and deletion

      November 17, 2025

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          Sources

          “Let’s Rent a Train!” press release, emailed [DATE?]. 2023.
          “Who’s Doug Williams and why did he write a book?”, https://douglasglwilliams.wordpress.com/55-2/. Accessed on November 17, 2025.

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