Robert Guillaume

• Born: November 30, 1927
• Birthplace: St. Louis, Missouri
• Died: October 24, 2017
• Place of death: Los Angeles, California

Actor

A well-known performer in theater, television, and film, Guillaume is chiefly remembered for his role as Benson DuBois on the 1977 sitcom Soap and his starring turn as the same character in the long-running spinoff Benson(1979–86). He won two Emmy Awards for the role. Guillaume also was an accomplished singer who appeared in several popular Broadway musicals.

Early Life

Robert Guillaume was born Robert Peter Williams in St. Louis, Missouri, on November 30, 1927. When Guillaume was two years old, his father left the family and his mother sent him to live with his impoverished grandmother. Guillaume and his three siblings were raised by their grandmother, who worked as a maid to support the children.

In elementary school, Guillaume was known for his singing ability and his outspoken opinions. In later interviews, he stated that his resistance to adults’ racist attitudes had led to his argumentative behavior. After repeated arguments with school officials, he was expelled in ninth grade. Guillaume enlisted in the US Army in 1945 but was honorably discharged the next year after frequent disagreements with his commanding officer. He returned home, completed high school, and took business classes at night at St. Louis University. In his early twenties, he changed his last name to Guillaume, the French equivalent of “William,” which played on his family’s French-Indian ancestry and had a more striking sound. In 1955, Guillaume married his first wife, Darlene, with whom he had two sons, Kevin and Jacques; the marriage ended late in the same decade.

Life’s Work

Guillaume’s singing ability led him to transfer to the music school at Washington University in St. Louis, where he trained as a classical tenor under the tutelage of Leslie Chabay. In 1957, he earned a scholarship to perform at the Aspen Music Festival, then began an apprenticeship in Cleveland at the Karamu Performing Arts Theatre. His appearances in musicals and operas there led to stage roles in New York in the 1970s, in plays including Porgy and Bess, Purlie, No Place to Be Somebody, and Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris.

During this period, Guillaume also appeared in guest roles on numerous sitcoms by influential television writer Norman Lear, including All in the Family, Good Times, The Jeffersons, and Sanford and Son. In 1976, Guillaume established himself as a rising star when he starred as Nathan Detroit in an all-African American Broadway production of the musical Guys and Dolls; he was nominated for a Tony Award in 1977 for his performance.

In 1977, Guillaume was offered a major role in ABC’s situation comedy Soap, an innovative, serialized show that parodied soap operas in a half-hour format. Guillaume played a sardonic butler, Benson DuBois, working for the wealthy Tate family. He left the show in 1979 to star in a spinoff sitcom, Benson, which ran until 1986. Soap was canceled in 1981 but was highly regarded by many television critics; in 2008, it was named to Time magazine’s one hundred best television shows of all time.

After the conclusion of Benson, Guillaume directed and performed in John Grin’s Christmas, a 1986 made-for-television movie. In 1989, he starred in the short-lived sitcom The Robert Guillaume Show; two years later, he appeared in another one-season series, Pacific Station. Guillaume returned to the theater in 1990 to play the Phantom in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical The Phantom of the Opera. Guillaume also took a number of film roles, most notably in Lean on Me (1989) and The Lion King (1994), in which he provided the voice of the mandrill Rafiki. Guillaume also narrated an audiobook version of The Lion King, for which he won a Grammy in 1994 for Best Spoken-Word Album for Children.

In the late 1990s and 2000s, Guillaume continued to appear in film, television, and video games. From 1998 to 2000, he was part of the ensemble cast of the critically acclaimed television series Sports Night. Guillaume suffered a serious stroke in his dressing room during the filming of Sports Night’s first season but recovered and returned to the show. He continued to act after his stroke and, in addition to appearing in the film Big Fish (2003), he provided the voice of Doctor Eli Vance in the video game Half-Life 2, as well as its sequels. Still working into the second decade of the twenty-first century, he had roles in the films The Secrets of Jonathan Sperry (2009), Satin (2011), and Columbus Circle (2012).

After battling prostate cancer for over two decades, Guillaume died at his home in Los Angeles, California, on October 24, 2017, at the age of eighty-nine. He is survived by his three daughters, a son, four grandchildren, and several great-grandchildren.

Significance

Guillaume battled racist attitudes in both his career and his personal life. In addition to his early arguments with school administrators, he believed that he missed out on stage roles because of his race. However, he maintained a positive attitude and worked to counteract stereotypes. In the late 1970s, Soap was known for addressing controversial subjects such as interracial marriage. Guillaume also pushed for the character of Benson to play a more active role, which led writers to craft a story line in which Benson was elected lieutenant governor. The final season of Benson involved the character’s campaign for governor (the show’s cliffhanger ending did not reveal the outcome of the election). The Robert Guillaume Show also challenged television conventions, as it prominently featured an interracial relationship.

Bibliography

Green, Tom. “Guillaume Is Back, Breaking Sitcom Barriers.” USA Today, April 5, 1989. Profile of Guillaume written upon the debut of The Robert Guillaume Show. Includes the actor’s frank assessment of his role as Benson DuBois and a look at some of his ambitions for his new series.

Guillaume, Robert, and David Ritz. Robert Guillaume: A Life. U of Missouri P, 2002. Revealing autobiography in which Guillaume describes the major influences in his life and career and critically examines his own actions and behavior.

Italie, Hillel. "Robert Guillaume, Star of Hit Sitcom Benson, Dies at 89." The Washington Post, 24 Oct. 2017, www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/robert-guillaume-star-of-hit-sitcom-benson-dies-at-89/2017/10/24/d00c70a2-b8f5-11e7-a908-a3470754bbb9‗story.html?utm‗term=.f95cbbb0d389. Accessed 29 Mar. 2018.

Kim, Lahn S. “Benson.” Encyclopedia of Television, edited by Horace Newcomb, 2nd ed., vol. 1, Fitzroy Dearborn, 2005. Useful cultural and racial analysis of Benson and Guillaume’s performance in the title role.

Slotnik, Daniel E. "Robert Guillaume, Emmy-Winning Star of Benson, Dies at 89." The New York Times, 24 Oct. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/10/24/obituaries/robert-guillaume-dead-emmy-winning-star-of-benson.html. Accessed 29 Mar. 2018.