While his mother wanted him to do "something nice and safe", i.e. working in the civil service, Beckley felt he had discovered that acting was what was going to make him happy when he saw a performance of Emlyn Williams' "The Corn is Green" by the Portsmouth local repertory company the Court Players.
John Williams | Robin Williams | Robbie Williams | Tennessee Williams | Williams College | Ralph Vaughan Williams | Ted Williams | Vanessa L. Williams | William Carlos Williams | Hank Williams, Jr. | Hank Williams | Don Williams | Williams | Shirley Williams | Lucinda Williams | Andy Williams | Victoria Williams | Serena Williams | Brian Williams | Vanessa Williams | Esther Williams | Paul Williams | Bert Williams | Rowan Williams | Hype Williams | Wendy O. Williams | Michael K. Williams | John Williams (composer) | Clough Williams-Ellis | Williams-Sonoma |
“At that time many Broadway-bound productions tried out first in Boston, and I remember Ethel Barrymore in The Corn Is Green by Emlyn Williams and Arsenic and Old Lace with Boris Karloff. I felt myself a seasoned spectator, was at home among audiences, and was always ready to applaud bravura displays of virtuoso acting.”
Her husband introduced her to London society figures, many of whom sat for her, Dame Edith Evans, Dame Beryl Grey, Dorothy Tutin, Siân Phillips, Emlyn Williams, Sir Kenneth Clark, John Pope-Hennessy and Professor F. Brown, Head of the Slade School of Art.
In 1937, playwright and actor Emlyn Williams suggested to producer Alexander Korda the idea of making a film about "the Rattenbury murder case" with actors Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon.
He continued to work until 1968, his last appearance being in Night Must Fall by Emlyn Williams.
1985 Theatr Clwyd revival by Lindy Davies, at the Emlyn Williams Studio in May, transferred to Wyndham's Theatre, London, starring Leigh Lawson, Harriet Walter and Julie Christie; with a darkly imposing brick back-drop designed by Julian McGowan