The Telegram (St. John's)

Robert Guillaume, Emmy winning for ‘Soap’ actor, dead at 89

- BY HILLEL ITALIE

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 at age 89.

Guillaume died at home Tuesday in Los Angeles, according to his widow, Donna Brown Guillaume. He had been battling prostate cancer, she told The Associated Press.

Among Guillaume’s achievemen­ts was playing Nathan Detroit in the first all-black version of “Guys and Dolls,” earning a Tony nomination in 1977. He became the first Africaname­rican to sing the title role of “Phantom of the Opera,” appearing with an all-white cast in Los Angeles.

While playing in “Guys and Dolls, he 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 minute I saw the script, I knew I had a live one,” he recalled 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.”

The character became so popular that ABC was persuaded to launch a spinoff, simply called “Benson,” which lasted from 1979 to 1986. The series made Guillaume wealthy and famous, but he regretted that Benson’s wit had to be toned down to make him more appealing as the lead star.

The career of Robert Guillaume almost ended in January 1999 at Walt Disney Studio. He was appearing in the TV series “Sports Night” as Isaac Jaffee, executive producer of a sports highlight show. Returning to his dressing room after a meal away from the studio, he suddenly collapsed.

“I fell on the floor, and I couldn’t get up,” he told an interviewe­r in 2001. “I kept flounderin­g about on the floor and I didn’t know why I couldn’t do it. I didn’t know it was it was caused by my left side being weaker than the other.”

Fortunatel­y, St. Joseph Hospital

was directly across from the studio. The 71-year-old actor was taken there and treated for a stroke— the result of a blood clot that blocked circulatio­n of blood to the brain. They are fatal in 15 per cent of the cases.

Guillaume’s stroke was minor, causing relatively slight damage and little effect on his speech. After six weeks in the hospital, he underwent a therapy of walks and sessions in the gym. He returned to the second season of “Sports Talk,” and it was written into the script that Isaac Jaffee was recovering from a stroke. Because of slim ratings, the second season proved to be the last for the much-praised show.

Guillaume resumed his career and travelled as a new spokesman for the American Stroke Associatio­n. He also made appearance for the American Heart Associatio­n.

“I’m a bastard, a Catholic, the son of a prostitute, and a product of the poorest slums of St. Louis.”

This was the opening of “Guillaume: A Life,” his 2002 autobiogra­phy in which he laid 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 Williams, believing the change would give him distinctio­n.

His early years were spent in a back-alley apartment without plumbing or electricit­y; an

outhouse was shared with two dozen people. His alcoholic mother hated him because of his dark skin, and his grandmothe­r rescued him, taught him to read and enrolled him in a Catholic school.

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.

He worked in a department store, the post office and as St. Louis’s first black streetcar motorman. Seeking something better, he enrolled at St. Louis University, excelling in philosophy and Shakespear­e, and then at Washington University (St. Louis) where a music professor trained the young man’s superb tenor singing voice.

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 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 AIDS.

 ?? Ap PHOTO ?? In this Nov. 18, 1986 file photo, poses for a photo in Los Angeles. Guillaume, who won Emmy Awards for his roles on “Soap” and “Benson” died Tuesday in Los Angeles at age 89. Guillaume’s widow Donna Brown Guillaume says he had been battling prostate...
Ap PHOTO In this Nov. 18, 1986 file photo, poses for a photo in Los Angeles. Guillaume, who won Emmy Awards for his roles on “Soap” and “Benson” died Tuesday in Los Angeles at age 89. Guillaume’s widow Donna Brown Guillaume says he had been battling prostate...

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