The author's book choice was a dictionary with a typewriter, pen and paper combined as his luxury. Williams appeared as an eccentric artist in the 1983 Thames Television production, Rumpole and the Genuine Article. When the regular actors in this series turned up for the first read-through of this episode, they were astonished when guest star Williams handed each of them a new version of the script written by himself, keeping to the broad outlines of the story, but rewriting the dialogue and giving himself rather more lines. No-one had asked him to do this, and he was carefully informed in no uncertain terms that the John Mortimer original script would be used with no alteration. He complied. Williams was married in 1935 to actress Mary Marjorie O'Shann (Molly Shan), who died in 1970. They had two sons, Alan, a writer, and Brook, an actor. Brook Williams became a close friend of Richard Burton's, working as Burton's personal assistant and appearing in many of Burton's films. Both during his marriage and following his wife's death, Williams was actively bisexual throughout his adult life. He maintained a relationship from 1981 to 1986 with American theatre journalist Albert N. Williams (no relation), whom Emlyn Williams met while appearing at the Northlight Theatre in the Chicago area with his one-man Charles Dickens show. (Albert Williams served as Emlyn Williams' personal assistant during a 1982 tour of England, Wales and Ireland with the Charles Dickens and Dylan Thomas solo shows.) Emlyn Williams died on 25 September 1987 at his flat in Dovehouse Street, Chelsea, London, from complications from cancer. He was 81 years old. He was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium, London. Richard Burton was a great admirer of Williams.