William J. Norris dies; the first actor to play Scrooge in the Goodman Theatre’s ‘Christmas Carol’

William J. Norris playing Scrooge in “A Christmas Carol” at the Goodman Theatre. | Sun-Times file

William J. Norris, the first actor to play Scrooge in the Goodman Theatre’s annual “Christmas Carol,” has died, said B.J. Jones, the artistic director at Northlight Theatre.

He was 75 and died Nov. 30 of lingering heart trouble at his home in Iowa, according to Jones.

“He’s one of the founding fathers of the Chicago Theater movement,” he said.

Robert Falls, the artistic director of the Goodman, called him a “brilliant actor” in a Facebook tribute.

“Terribly sad,” Falls wrote. “What a brilliant actor! So many of his performances are the stuff of legends — those early Stuart Gordon Organic shows, and of course his profound Scrooge that anchored the Goodman production for so many years.”

William J. Norris appears in “Warp!” at the Organic Theater in 1972.

Mr. Norris, who played Scrooge for 12 seasons beginning in 1978, once told the Chicago Sun-Times how he interpreted the classic Charles Dickens character.

“He never cheated anybody. He just didn’t give anyone a break. He paid Bob Cratchit 15 shillings a week, par for the course then,” he said. “There’s still a lot of work that can be done on a character that’s so richly written.”

He was in the Organic’s original production of “Warp!,” Jones said, and “he did a legendary production of ‘The Caretaker’ directed by Dennis Zacek at Victory Gardens.”

During a career of nearly 40 years, Mr. Norris appeared on many stages in Europe and around Chicago, including Chicago Shakespeare Theater and the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire, his Goodman biography said.

He also worked as a playwright and director, according to the Mark Larson book “Ensemble: An Oral History of Chicago Theater.”

And he appeared on TV and in movies and won an Emmy and a Jeff award, according to the Goodman.

He grew up in Morgan Park and graduated from St. Cajetan grade school. During his high school years, he studied at a Franciscan seminary, he said in the Sun-Times interview. He went to Loyola University.

Mr. Norris taught drama at Loyola. He used to tell his students, ”Never expect from your profession what you need in your personal life, and vice versa.”

He listed some of his favorite actors as Richard Dreyfuss, Katharine Hepburn, Edgar Meyer, Laurence Olivier and Paul Scofield.

Mr. Norris had a gift for playing mature parts, even when he was young. And he had a “comedically cranky” exterior, Jones said. “He delighted, in acting as Scrooge, as if he hated the kids in the cast — which could not have been further from the truth.”

William J. Norris (right) in a 2015 Northlight Theatre production of “Outside Mullingar.”

His last performance in Chicago was a 2015 production of “Outside Mullingar” directed by Jones.

“He had a vast range,” Jones said. “He was hilarious, but he could also do heavy tension and drama, as evidenced by ‘The Caretaker,’ and he was so warm and touching in ‘Outside Mullingar.”