(Photo By Flickr User Alan Light)
Two-Time Emmy winner Actor Robert Guillaume has died.
According to eurweb.com & tlcnaptown.com, Guillaume’s portrayal of Benson DuBois endured for nine years, first in three seasons on “Soap” (1977-1980) and then on the spinoff “Benson,” which ran until April 1986.
Benson’s personal arc went from butler/cook to state budget director and finally to lieutenant governor. He even ran for governor against his former boss, Eugene X. Gatling (John Noble), but that race, a season-ending cliff-hanger, went undecided because the show went off the air.
Guillaume’s Emmy for outstanding actor in a comedy in 1985 made him the only African-American male to win in that category. He also received the supporting comedy actor trophy in 1979, earning six nominations in all for playing Benson.
Guillaume also earned a Tony nomination for best actor in a musical in 1977 for playing Nathan Detroit in a revival of Guys and Dolls, and he replaced the original Phantom Michael Crawford in an L.A. production of The Phantom of the Opera.
Guillaume also appeared in the films Seems Like Old Times (1980), Lean on Me (1989), Death Warrant (1990), The Meteor Man (1993), First Kid (1996), Spy Hard (1996) and Big Fish (2003). And he wrote, directed and starred in the 1986 ABC telefilm John Grin’s Christmas.
Guillaume also starred as a divorced marriage counselor in the 1989 ABC series The Robert Guillaume Show; served as the narrator of the HBO animated series Happily Ever After; and guest-starred on Julia, Marcus Welby, M.D., All in the Family, The Jeffersons, Good Times, The Love Boat, Sanford And Son, L.A. Law, Diagnosis Murder, Touched by an Angel, Sports Night, and 8 Simple Rules … for Dating My Teenage Daughter.
In 1992, Guillaume partnered in The Confetti Co., which published read-along books and audiocassettes (he was the narrator) of traditional fairy tales written with a multi-ethnic approach. Two years later in 1994, he received a Grammy Award for his Rafiki vocals (The Lion King audiobook) on a spoken-word album for kids.
Guillaume’s career spanned for more than 50 years; he worked extensively on stage, television, and film
Just about a month shy from his 90th birthday, Robert Peter Williams (a/k/a Robert Guillaume) is dead at the age of 89.
