Gary Watson was born Garrowby Cawthorne Watson in Shropshire, England, where his life would take a fascinating turn. He pursued his passion for education by graduating from Cambridge University and began his academic career, teaching English at Westminster City School in London. Watson's early acting career flourished at the West End Phoenix Theatre and in repertory with the Queen's Theatre in Hornchurch, East London, from 1957 to 1958.
Under the guidance of George Rylands and the Marlowe Society of Cambridge, Watson gained recognition in the early 1960s for his exceptional reading and narration skills on radio, particularly with poetic verse and Shakespearean plays.
Watson's screen debut in 1959 marked the beginning of a successful career in television, with frequent appearances in ITC cult series such as The Baron, The Saint, and The Avengers. His versatility as an actor allowed him to portray a wide range of characters, from dependable authorities like police officers, doctors, and military personnel to cunning double agents and suspicious murder suspects.
In a notable high-profile role, Watson co-starred in the BBC TV production of The Three Musketeers (1966) alongside Brian Blessed and Jeremy Young, playing the character of Aramis. His other notable roles include portraying Arthur Terrall, a human controlled by the Daleks, in the Doctor Who serial Evil of the Daleks, and appearances in War & Peace (1972) as Captain Denisov, Anna Karenina (1977) as Serpukhovskoy, and Z Cars (1962) as Detective Inspector Fred Connor.
As a talented host, Watson read selected poetry on BBC 1's Five to Eleven (1986) under his own name. He also narrated documentaries, such as The World About Us (1967),and appeared in various commercials for Loyds Bank and Nescafé.
Watson retired from acting in 1990 and has been married to his wife, Elsje Maria Jacobsson, since then.
