Actor Robert Guillaume passed away Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 89. A rep told the Associated Press that Guillaume had been battling prostate cancer.
Guillaume, whose real name is Robert Peter Williams, gained fame as the sharp-witted butler on ABC’s Soap and the spin-off Benson.
Guillaume earned Emmy Awards for his role as Benson Dubois. He also earned a Tony nomination for becoming the first black actor to sing the role of “Phantom of the Opera,” with an all-white cast.
After serving as an apprentice at theaters in Aspen, Colo., and Cleveland, Guillaume toured with Broadway shows “Finian’s Rainbow,” “Golden Boy,” “Porgy and Bess” and “Purlie”.
Guillaume, who rose from the squalor of St. Louis, avoided acting in black exploitation movies that were popular in the 1960s and ’70s.
When he was presented with a script to play a witty butler in a new primetime TV sitcom, he jumped at the chance.
“The minute I saw the script, I knew I had a live one,” he said in 2001. “Every role was written against type, especially Benson, who wasn’t subservient to anyone. To me, Benson was the revenge for all those stereotyped guys who looked like Benson in the ’40s and ’50s (movies) and had to keep their mouths shut.”
Guillaume suffered a stroke in January 1999 at age 71. Luckily, his stroke was minor and left him with slight impairments and little effect on his speech.
After six weeks of rehab, he returned to the second season of “Sports Talk,” and it was written into the script that Isaac Jaffee was recovering from a stroke, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Guillaume suffered a tragic loss when his only son, 33-year-old Jacques, died of AIDS in the mid-1980s.
Guillaume leaves behind his wife of 31 years, Donna Brown-Guillaume, and daughter Rachel.
Photos by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images, WENN.com
