A distinguished, dapper veteran of stage musicals, Robert Guillaume was nominated for a Tony Award for his starring role as Nathan Detroit in the 1976-77 all-black revival of "Guys and Dolls". After numerous small screen appearances, he came to prominence on the sitcom "Soap" (ABC, 1977-79) as the acerbic, insolent butler Benson, a role that won him a supporting Emmy in 1979. His character was spun off onto a long-running series of his own, "Benson" (ABC, 1979-86), for which the actor copped a second Emmy in 1985. In the late 70s and early 80s, Guillaume starred in three TV-movies with Gary Coleman, one of which he co-produced. He returned to the sitcom format cast as a marriage counselor romantically involved with his white secretary (Wendy Phillips) in the short-lived "The Robert Guillaume Show" (ABC, 1989). After a nine-year absence, Guillaume was once again a series regular, this time as the show-within-the-show's executive producer on the half-hour ABC comedy-drama "Sports Night" (1998-2000).
Guillaume's active TV schedule has limited his film appearances, which began with a role in the blaxploitation flick "SuperFly TNT" (1973). "Lean on Me" (1989) offered the actor one of his best film roles, as the superintendent of schools trying to give support to maverick high school principal Joe Clark (Morgan Freeman). Guillaume was not even seen in his biggest hit, though, voicing the mystical baboon Rafiki in Disney's animated blockbuster "The Lion King" (1994).
With his second wife Donna Brown Guillaume, he executive produced and co-starred in "You Must Remember This", a 1992 PBS "Wonderworks" entry. Between 1994 and 1997, the Guillaumes also produced "Happily Ever After" (HBO), a series of ethnically diverse animated fairy tales, for which he also served as narrator.
Family
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Daughter: Rachel Jeannette Williams. born c. 1989
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Son: Jacques Williams. born c. 1957; son by first wife; died on December 23, 1990 of complications from AIDS
Significant Others
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Wife: . mother of his older children
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Companion: Fay Hauser. linked romantically in the early 1980s
Education
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Karamu Theatre, Cleveland, Ohio
Milestones
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1964 Off-Broadway debut, Fly Blackbird (date approximate)
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1973 Feature film debut, Superfly TNT
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1977 Played Benson on the ABC sitcom Soap
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1983 Played title character in TV adaptation of Broadway musical Purlie
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1989 Co-starred in the feature Lean on Me
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1990 Replaced Michael Crawford as The Phantom of the Opera in Los Angeles production of the hit musical; first black actor to play the role
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1994 Voiced the character of Rafiki in the animated Disney blockbuster The Lion King
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1996 Had roles in First Kid and Spy Hard
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1997 Made pilot for Metropolitan Hospital (Fox)
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1999 Suffered mild stroke in his dressing room on the set of Sports Night (January 14)
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Appeared in Broadway musicals Porgy and Bess , Kwamina , Purlie and as Nathan Detroit in black revival of Guys and Dolls ; earned 1977 Tony nomination as Lead Actor in a Musical for the latter
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Co-starred in the ABC series Sports Night
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Co-starred with Gary Coleman in the TV-movies The Kid from Left Field (1979), The Kid with the Broken Halo (1982) and The Kid with the 200 I.Q. (1983; also executive producer)
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Formed Guillaume/Margo Productions
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Raised by his maternal grandmother in St Louis, Missouri
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Reprised Rafiki in the animated TV spin-off
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Served in the US Army
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Stage debut as Billy Bigelow in regional production of Carousel
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Starred as title character in TV series, Benson , a spin-off of Soap
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Starred in ABC sitcom The Robert Guillaume Show ; also executive produced
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While in college won a scholarship to a musical festival in Aspen, Colorado