Bill was a proper London Cockney with being born with in the sound of London's Bow Bells but he was brought up in Hackney and Bethnal Green. He was one of a family of 6 boys and 2 girls and left school at 14 starting work as a tailboard monkey - hanging on to the back of railway lorries carrying parcels to stations. He did his national service in the RAF, after which he decided to be an actor but with money being scarce he enlisted for 4 years as a state room steward on a P &O liner in order to pay his way through drama school. From there he went into rep, Summer School, radio and commercials. He was Sidney the milkman in Mrs Dale's Diary on the radio,a greengrocer with a ring of confidence in a toothpaste commercial. He married Kate, an Australian actress 3 years after they met when he was 35 and she was 21. They had a son Jamie, born in 1974 and a daughter Sophie born in 1978 and made their home in a 19th century Suffolk gamekeepers cottage. Bill went on to become known as Arthur Fowler in the BBC's Eastenders.