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Date of Birth

30 November 1927, St. Louis, Missouri, USA

Birth Name

Robert Peter Williams

Height

5' 10" (1.78 m)

Mini Biography

Robert "Bob" Guillaume (born November 30, 1927) is an American stage and television actor, best known for his role as Benson Du Bois on the TV-series Soap and the spin-off Benson, voicing the mandrill Rafiki in The Lion King and as Isaac Jaffe on Sports Night. In a career that has spanned more than 50 years he has worked extensively on stage (including a Tony Award nomination), television (including winning two Emmy Awards), and film.

Early life

Robert Guillaume was born as Robert Peter Williams (Guillaume is the French form of William) in St. Louis, Missouri. He studied at St. Louis University and Washington University and served in the United States Army before pursuing an acting career.

Career

Stage

On leaving the university, Robert joined the Karamu Players in Cleveland and performed in musical comedies and opera. He toured the world in 1959 as a cast member of the Broadway musical Free and Easy. He made his Broadway debut in Kwamina in 1961. (A reference on a Columbia LP shows this as "Dwamina".) Other stage appearances included Golden Boy, Tambourines to Glory, Guys and Dolls, for which he received a Tony Award nomination, Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, the Los Angeles production of The Phantom of the Opera (succeeding Michael Crawford in the lead role), and Purlie!. Added roles were in Katherine Dunham's Bambouche and in Fly The Blackbird. In 1964 he portrayed Sportin' Life in a revival of Porgy and Bess at New York's City Center. Robert has been a member of the Robert de Cormier Singers, performing in concerts and on television. He has soloed on The Tonight Show. He recorded a LP record, Columbia CS9033, titled Just Arrived as a member of The Pilgrims, a folk trio, with Angeline Butler and Millard Williams.

Some minor controversy was stirred when Guillaume replaced Michael Crawford as The Phantom in the National tour of Phantom of the Opera. Guillaume is the first, and to date only, black actor to assume the role. No recording of his performance exists except for a brief excerpt captured on a Sunday Morning episode on CBS shortly after his debut.

Source

The Mini Biography is from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Guillaume. IMDb is not affiliated with, and neither endorses, nor is endorsed by Wikipedia or any of the authors who contributed to this article. The Wikipedia content may be available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, version 3.0 or any later version, available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/. Additional or other terms may apply. See Wikipedia Terms of Use for details. This webpage may use the Freebase schema, licensed under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/.

Spouse

Donna Brown Guillaume	(1986 - present) 1 child
Marlene Williams	(1955 - 21 December 1984) (divorced) 2 children

Trade Mark

Gravelly, gregarious voice.

Trivia

There was some controversy when he replaced the original Phantom (Michael Crawford) in Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical "The Phantom of the Opera". Some tickets were returned to protest his selection as lead actor even before his first performance. His run was none the less popular with audiences and critics.

Guillaume's stroke was paralleled in his TV series where his character, boss "Isaac Jaffe" also was shown to have suffered a stroke, and where he was also shown to be missed and idolized by his TV-staff colleagues.

Suffered a mild stroke on the set of his TV series "Sports Night" (1998). [14 January 1999]

One son died of AIDS in 1990 at age 32.

Daughter, Rachel, born 1990

Was once engaged to actress Fay Hauser.

Father of Kevin Guillaume

Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy" by Ronald L. Smith, pg. 198. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387

Was nominated for Broadway's 1977 Tony Award a Best Actor (Musical) for a revival of "Guys and Dolls".

Guillaume was born as Robert Peter Williams (Guillaume is the French translation of William).

He was the producers first choice for the role of Tuvok on Star Trek: Voyager. The role eventually went to Tim Russ.

Along with James Garner, he was among the original cast for "The Powers That Be" (1992) in the TV Guide Fall Preview.

He was nominated for a 1976 Joseph Jefferson Award for Actor in a Principal Role in a Play for "Benito Cereno" at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.

He was nominated for a 1977 Joseph Jefferson Award for Actor in a Principal Role in a Play for his performance in "Don Juan" at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.

Remains good friends with Missy Gold during and after "Benson" (1979).

Best known by the public for his starring role as the title character in "Benson" (1979).

Is the first African-American actor to win the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. As of 2013, he is the only African-American to win that award.

Salary

"Benson" (1979)

$20,000 per 1/2 hour episode

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