Nicholas King (March 21, 1933 – April 3, 2012) was an American actor and horticulturist who was instrumental in preserving the Watts Towers.
[1] In 1969 King returned to Northern California, where he became a partner in a land cooperative on the Garcia River in Point Arena.
King was present when Willoughby's friend, film editor William Cartwright, told the photographer about first seeing the towers and wondering why they had been abandoned.
King expressed an interest in working with Cartwright to save the towers, and the two men traced ownership to Joseph Montoya, an employee of a local dairy.
"Without his participation, the towers would have been destroyed" under a demolition order issued by the City of Los Angeles after they had been declared a potential safety hazard.