DONALDSON, William 1935-2005

(Charles William Donaldson, Henry Root)

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born January 4, 1935, in Sunningdale, Berkshire, England; died June 22, 2005, in London, England. Theatrical producer and author. Best known for his satirical letter collections published under the pen name Henry Root, Donaldson was also a theater producer who became infamous for his womanizing, drug use, and unrestrained spending that caused him to lose several fortunes. Orphaned when he was in his teens, he received a comfortable inheritance from his father and used this to pursue his interest in the theater. He graduated from Magdalene College, Cambridge, in 1958 and soon found early success by coproducing the comedic Beyond the Fringe group that included stars Dudley Moore and Peter Cook. Donaldson also helped American singer Bob Dylan by promoting him to English audiences, and he produced other stage shows, such as The Ginger Man and The Promise, through 1971. But Donaldson's financial and career success went to his head, and, remarkably, he spent all of his money. Fortuitously, he inherited another fortune in 1968, only to waste all of it as well a few years later. In the meantime, he had gained a reputation as a womanizer, ending his initial marriage and going through several other relationships during the 1960s, including one to singer Carly Simon. Broke again by the early 1970s, thanks in part to a marijuana addiction and his love of throwing big parties, he tried to start a business by purchasing a glass-bottomed boat in Ibiza, Spain. When this, too, fell through, he returned to England and roomed for a time at a brothel. It was here that Donaldson started writing in earnest and found success with Both the Ladies and the Gentlemen (1975). A few years later, he published his first "Root" book, Henry Root: The Collected Letters (1980). The mock satirical letters drew praise and an avid audiences, leading to several more collections, including The Further Letters of Henry Root (1980), Henry Root's World of Knowledge (1982), Henry Root's A-Z of Women: "The Definitive Guide" (1985), The Soap Letters (1988), Root in Europe (1992), The Complete Henry Root Letters (1992), and Root about Britain (1994). Drug addiction became a problem again in the 1990s, however, when Donaldson began to use crack cocaine. The result was another bank ruptcy from which the author never recovered. Among Donaldson's other books are Great Disasters of the Stage (1984), The English Way of Doing Things (1984), Is This Allowed? (1987), 1992 and All That: The William Donaldson File on Europe and the Europeans (1990), The Big One, the Black One, the Fat One, and the Other One: My Life in Showbiz (1992), From Winchester to This (1998), I'm Leaving You Simon, You Disgust Me: A Dictionary of Received Ideas (2003), and Brewer's Rogues, Villains and Eccentrics: An A-Z of Roguish Britons through the Ages (2004).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Daily Telegraph (London, England), June 27, 2005.

Guardian (London, England), June 25, 2005, p. 27.

Independent (London, England), June 25, 2005, p. 38.

Times (London, England), June 27, 2005, p. 49.