William Fawcett (actor) - Early Years, Military and Education

Early Years, Military and Education

Fawcett was born as William Fawcett Thompson in High Forest in Olmsted County near Rochester in southeastern Minnesota. The name "Fawcett" came from the physician who delivered him. His father, William Eaton Lawrence Thompson, was a Methodist pastor who encouraged young Bill to enter the ministry. On September 5, 1916, three days before his twenty-second birthday, Fawcett was licensed to preach by the Hamline Quarterly Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Minnesota.

During World War I, Fawcett served as an ambulance driver. He graduated from Methodist-affiliated Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Fawcett was decorated by the French government with the Légion d'honneur for his care of the wounded. After his military service, he went into acting, instead of the ministry, first in Canada and then in the United States. He had performed in church dramas and acted so convincingly that his mother would sometimes cry over his characterizations. He performed in repertory theater and stock companies during the 1920s and 1930s.

In 1936, Fawcett procured his Ph.D. in Elizabethan drama from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. He then became a professor of theater arts at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan.