Robert Guillaume

Robert Guillaume, born Robert Peter Williams on November 30, 1927, in St. Louis, Missouri, was an American actor and singer whose career spanned more than five decades across stage, television, and film. He died on October 24, 2017, in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 89, from prostate cancer. Born to an alcoholic mother who abandoned him and several siblings, Guillaume was raised by his grandmother, Jeannette Williams. He studied at Saint Louis University and Washington University in St. Louis and served in the U.S. Army before pursuing a career in the performing arts. He adopted the surname Guillaume, the French equivalent of his birth surname Williams, as his professional name.

Guillaume began his stage career with the Karamu Players in Cleveland, where he performed in musical comedies and opera. In 1959, he toured internationally as a cast member of the Broadway musical Free and Easy. He made his Broadway debut in Kwamina in 1961, launching a stage career that continued through 1993. His Broadway credits included Tambourines to Glory, Finian's Rainbow, Purlie, and Guys and Dolls, among other productions. In 1964, he portrayed Sportin' Life in a revival of Porgy and Bess at New York City Center and also played a role in Golden Boy alongside Sammy Davis Jr. His additional stage work included Katherine Dunham's Bambouche, Fly the Blackbird, and Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris. In 1976, Guillaume played Nathan Detroit in the Broadway revival of Guys and Dolls, earning both a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical and a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Actor in a Musical, both in 1977. In 1990, he was cast in the Los Angeles production of The Phantom of the Opera, replacing Michael Crawford in the title role and becoming the first Black actor to portray the character.

Early in his career, Guillaume was a member of the Robert De Cormier Singers, performing in concerts and on television. He also recorded an LP album titled Just Arrived as a member of The Pilgrims, a folk trio with Angeline Butler and Millard Williams, released on Columbia Records. The group was developed by Columbia producer Tom Wilson as a counterpart to the popular folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary. During the recording sessions, an then-unknown Paul Simon pitched his composition "The Sound of Silence" to Wilson for the group, but Wilson ultimately signed Simon and Art Garfunkel to a recording contract instead.

On television, Guillaume became widely recognized for playing Benson DuBois, a butler, on the ABC series Soap from 1977 to 1979. The character proved popular enough to anchor a spin-off series, Benson, which ran for 158 episodes from 1979 to 1986. He won an Emmy Award for his portrayal of the character twice, once in 1979 for Soap and again in 1985 for Benson. He also appeared in the 1985 television miniseries North and South as Frederick Douglass. Guillaume played marriage counselor Edward Sawyer on The Robert Guillaume Show in 1989, Detective Bob Ballard on Pacific Station from 1991 to 1992, and television executive Isaac Jaffe on Aaron Sorkin's Sports Night from 1998 to 2000. On January 14, 1999, he suffered a mild stroke while filming an episode of Sports Night at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California. After six weeks in the hospital, he underwent physical therapy, and his character on the series was subsequently written to have experienced a stroke as well. Guillaume made numerous additional television appearances throughout his career, including guest roles on Good Times, The Jeffersons, Sanford and Son, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, A Different World, and Saved by the Bell: The College Years, among others.

Guillaume voiced the mandrill Rafiki in the 1994 animated film The Lion King and reprised the role in subsequent sequels and spin-offs. He won a Grammy Award in 1995 for his spoken-word performance of an audiobook version of The Lion King. He also provided the voice of Mr. Thicknose in The Land Before Time VIII: The Big Freeze and Eli Vance in the 2004 video game Half-Life 2 and its episodic sequels. His voice work extended to television animation as well, with roles in Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Fish Police, and Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child.

Guillaume was married twice. His first marriage, to Marlene Williams in 1955, produced two sons before the couple divorced in 1984. He also fathered a daughter born in 1950 and another daughter born in 1980. In 1986, he married Donna Brown, with whom he had a daughter named Rachel. Guillaume holds stars on both the Hollywood Walk of Fame, received on November 28, 1984, and the St. Louis Walk of Fame.