Billy Watson, a child star who appeared in some Old Hollywood film classics such as “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” and “In Old Chicago” and one of the last members of The Watson Family of childhood actors, has died. He was 98.
William Richard Watson, or “Billy,” died on February 17 of natural causes at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane, his family announced in an obituary on March 1.
“He was loving and kind; he could light up a crowded room with his laughter and exuberance. He will be greatly missed by all who knew him,” his family said in a statement.
Watson was the sixth of nine siblings as part of the Watson family, all nine of whom were child actors who between them appeared in hundreds, if not thousands of films between the silent era and the talkies era of Old Hollywood. They are the only family that together has their own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Billy Watson however appeared in films such as “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” and at times shared the screen with actors such as James Stewart, Will Rogers, Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn. Some of his other credits include “The Little Minister,” “The Winning Ticket,” “Kidnapped” and “Young Mr. Lincoln.”
As of 2022, only one of the Watson Family siblings is still living, his brother Garry Watson.
Billy Watson served in World War II along with three of his brothers in the US Coast Guard. And after the war he took up a career in commercial photography in Los Angeles while acting in various TV roles and community theater groups on the side.
In 1990, he and his wife Sue moved to Kettle Falls and then to Colville in 1995 and became active in other local theater shows and with his church’s choir. His wife Sue died in 2008.