Benson star had humble start
Actor rose from poverty in St. Louis to fame on the stage and small screen
NEW YORK Robert Guillaume, who rose from squalid beginnings in St. Louis slums to become a star in stage musicals and win Emmy Awards for his portrayal of the sharp-tongued butler in the TV sitcoms Soap and Benson, has died. He was 89.
Guillaume died at his Los Angeles home Oct. 24, said his widow, Donna Brown Guillaume. He had been battling prostate cancer, she said.
Among Guillaume’s achievements was playing Nathan Detroit in the first all-black version of Guys and Dolls, earning him a Tony nomination in 1977. He became the first African-American to sing the title role of Phantom of the Opera and was the voice of the shaman Rafiki in the film version of The Lion King.
“Giant of stage + screen,” tweeted filmmaker Ava DuVernay. “Also let’s remember that Robert Guillaume was among the first celebs to appear at AIDS fundraisers. Thank you, sir.”
While playing in Guys and Dolls, Guillaume was asked to test for the role of an acerbic butler of a governor’s mansion in Soap, a primetime TV sitcom that satirized soap operas.
The character became so popular that ABC was persuaded to launch a spinoff, simply called Benson, which lasted from 1979 to 1986.
In that series, the main character went from running the kitchen for a governor to becoming a political aide to eventually becoming lieutenant-governor. Benson made Guillaume wealthy and famous, but he regretted that his character’s wit had to be toned down to make him more appealing as the star.
“I’m a bastard, a Catholic, the son of a prostitute, and a product of the poorest slums of St. Louis.” That’s the opening of Guillaume: A Life, his 2002 autobiography in which he lays bare his troubled life.
He was born fatherless on Nov. 30, 1927 in St. Louis, one of four children. His mother named him Robert Peter Williams. When he became a performer he adopted Guillaume, a French version of William, believing the change would give him distinction.
Seeking but denied his mother’s love and scorned by nuns and students because of his dark skin, the boy became a rebel, and that carried into his adult life. He was expelled from school and then the army, though he was granted an honourable discharge. He fathered a daughter and abandoned the child and her mother. He did the same to his first wife and two sons and to another woman and a daughter.
After serving as an apprentice at theatres in Aspen, Colo., and Cleveland, the newly named Guillaume toured with Broadway shows Finian’s Rainbow, Golden Boy, Porgy and Bess, and Purlie, and began appearing on such sitcoms such as The Jeffersons and Sanford and Son. Then came Soap and Benson. His period of greatest success was marred by tragedy when his 33-year-old son Jacques died of complications from AIDS in 1990.
Guillaume’s first stable relationship came when he married TV producer Donna Brown in the mid1980s and had a daughter, Rachel. At last he was able to shrug off the bitterness he had felt throughout his life.
“To assuage bitterness requires more than human effort,” he wrote at the end of his autobiography. “Relief comes from a source we cannot see but can only feel. I am content to call that source love.”