Career
He is most remembered for originating the role of Beadle Bamford in Stephen Sondheim"s Sweeney Todd. In 2003 his life and death were the subject of one of William Finn"s Elegies: A Song Cycle, The Ballad of Jack Eric Williams (and other 3-named composers). Williams died in New York City on January 28, 1994 from cardiac arrest due to complications of diabetes.
Jack Eric Williams was married to Martha Elizabeth Lyne until her death in 1993.
In "The Ballad of Jack Eric Williams (and other 3-named composers)" William Finn suggested that Williams, a diabetic, deliberately failed to take his insulin because he wanted to die. Williams did, in fact, go into a diabetic coma prior to his death.
