Treat Williams
Richard Treat Williams Jr. was an American actor, whose career on stage and in film and television spanned five decades. He received many accolades for his work, including nominations for three Golden Globe Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and an Independent Spirit Award.
Williams began his career on Broadway, portraying Danny Zuko in the original run of Grease. After supporting roles in the films The Ritz and The Eagle Has Landed, he rose to fame with starring roles in Miloš Forman's film version of the musical Hair and in Steven Spielberg's historical comedy 1941, both released in 1979. He received further acclaim for his performance in the Sidney Lumet crime drama Prince of the City.
He appeared in many other films throughout his career, both in leading and supporting roles, including Once Upon a Time in America, Flashpoint, Smooth Talk, The Men's Club, Dead Heat, The Phantom, The Devil's Own, Deep Rising, the Substitute franchise, The Deep End of the Ocean, Miss Congeniality 2, 127 Hours and Daily Wire’s Run Hide Fight. Among his television roles, he starred as Dr. Andy Brown on the drama series Everwood, for which he received a Satellite Award nomination for Best Actor. Subsequent television work included White Collar, Chicago Fire, and Blue Bloods. He also starred as Mick O'Brien on the Hallmark series Chesapeake Shores and as Bill Paley in the FX miniseries Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, the latter being his final appearance on screen.
Throughout his career, Williams returned to the Broadway stage, appearing in productions of Over Here!, Once in a Lifetime, The Pirates of Penzance, Love Letters, and Follies.
Early life and education
Williams was born in Stamford, Connecticut, on December 1, 1951, the son of Marian, an antiques dealer, and Richard Norman Williams, a corporate executive. He moved with his family to Rowayton, Connecticut, when he was three. His maternal great-great-great-grandfather was William Henry Barnum, a U.S. senator from Connecticut and third cousin of the showman P. T. Barnum. Williams was a distant relative of both Robert Treat Paine—a signatory to the Declaration of Independence—and Herbert Hoover, the 31st President of the United States.Williams played football in high school and college. He graduated from the Kent School in Connecticut and Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. As a teenager, he acted in high school and local theatre productions, and began to think seriously about an acting career during his first year of college: "I loved football very much, but I didn't think you could be a jock and be in the theatre company at the same time … I started to get serious about learning as much as possible about the craft of acting in my freshman year." At one point, he was performing in three college shows simultaneously: "a comedy, a Shakespeare and a musical".
Career
1972–1979: Stage work and film breakthrough
Williams launched his professional acting career in musical theatre; He starred as Utah in the Sherman Brothers' musical Over Here!. He then starred in Grease on Broadway in the lead role of Danny Zuko for three years, later saying of the experience, "I had grown up learning all of the songs from West Side Story, so I was aware of what a big deal 'Broadway' was. When I got my first little dressing room at the Royale Theatre, thought, 'I've arrived. I'm here. This is fantastic!'".In 1975, Williams made his feature film debut with a supporting role in the thriller Deadly Hero. He received positive notices the following year for his portrayal of Michael Brick—a squeaky-voiced private detective—in The Ritz, a farcical comedy based on the play of the same name, and next appeared in a small part in the British war film The Eagle Has Landed. Williams came to worldwide attention in 1979 when he starred as George Berger—a leading member of a gang of flower children—in the Miloš Forman film Hair, based on the 1967 musical. Writing for the Sioux City Journal, critic Bob Thomas called it "a rare flight of creative imagination that widens the dimensions of the movie musical" and believed that Williams' performance "could not be better". In her mixed review for The New York Times, Janet Maslin wrote, "As his name might indicate, Treat Williams is one of the better things Hair has to offer … is the only one of the players who really suggests the spirit of euphoria upon which the original meant to capitalize". Williams' performance earned him a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year. His second film appearance of 1979 was the poorly reviewed Steven Spielberg war comedy 1941, in which he played Corporal Chuck Sitarski.
1980s roles
Throughout the next decade, Williams appeared in a variety of supporting and leading film roles, such as the adventure drama The Pursuit of D. B. Cooper, in which he played the titular aircraft hijacker; the Sergio Leone crime epic Once Upon A Time In America ; action-thriller Flashpoint ; Peter Medak's The Men's Club ; and the cult horror-comedy Dead Heat. His portrayal of Daniel Ciello—in Sidney Lumet's 1981 neo-noir crime drama Prince of the City—brought Williams his second Golden Globe nomination and some of the strongest reviews of his career, with Roger Ebert saying of his "demanding and gruelling" performance, "Williams is almost always onscreen, and almost always in situations of extreme stress, fatigue, and emotional turmoil. We see him coming apart before our eyes". In a retrospective review of the film published by Empire in 2000, Simon Braud wrote:Williams starred as Stanley Kowalski in the 1984 television adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire, earning his third Golden Globe nomination, and was nominated for the 1985 Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead for his portrayal of Arnold Friend in that year's Smooth Talk. In her review of Talk for The Washington Post, Rita Kempley wrote, "The mood grows progressively darker as Treat Williams, playing a trashy dreamboat, drives up in his LeMans convertible … Matching Dern in her stunning performance, Williams is in his best role since Prince of the City".
1990s–2006: Film, theatre, and ''Everwood''
Between 1993 and 1994, Williams starred as cynical divorce attorney Jack Harold on the CBS sitcom Good Advice, which ran for two seasons and was unfavorably reviewed by critics, though some were complimentary of Williams' performance. His film credits throughout the mid-late 1990s included Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead, Mulholland Falls, The Devil's Own, cult action-horror Deep Rising, and The Deep End of the Ocean. In 1996, he co-starred in the big-budget comic book adaptation The Phantom, with his character—villainous Xander Drax—trying his utmost to take over the world and kill the titular superhero. The film received mixed reviews, but many critics were impressed by the visuals and performances. Writing for the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert said he found the film "smashingly entertaining", adding, "Williams implacably evil … and also slick and oily in the best pulp tradition". That same year, his "messianic" work in The Late Shift, an HBO television film in which he portrayed real-life talent agent Michael Ovitz, was roundly praised by critics and earned him an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor.In 1998, Williams starred as Karl Thomasson, an ally of the previous film's protagonist, in the straight-to-video action film The Substitute 2: School's Out. He continued the role with The Substitute 3: Winner Takes All and The Substitute: Failure Is Not an Option. He returned to the stage in 1999, earning critical acclaim for his work as Portuguese fisherman Manuel in the off-Broadway production of Captains Courageous, the Musical. Next, he appeared as Buddy in the Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim's Follies, and co-starred in the Woody Allen-directed satire Hollywood Ending, with Elvis Mitchell of The New York Times calling his portrayal of film studio boss Hal Jaeger "frightening and impressive". His next major film role was that of egotistical FBI boss Walter Collins in the big-budget action comedy Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous.
Between 2002 and 2006, Williams played the lead role of Dr. Andrew Brown on the WB's Everwood, a drama series about a widowed neurosurgeon moving from New York City to Colorado with his two children. The show garnered critical acclaim and a devoted following during its four-season run, with Williams being nominated twice for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor. He later said of his time on the show, "I was a big fan of all the Frank Capra movies I thought Greg Berlanti wrote a Capra-esque show … It was just so full of love and good people and surprises and dealing with real life stuff that hadn't been dealt with on the networks before … I have extraordinarily warm feelings about it … I'm glad other people are discovering it because I think it's probably the best television series I was ever on". Between July and November 2006, he made several appearances on the first season of ABC's Brothers & Sisters, playing David Morton, a friend and potential suitor of protagonist Nora Walker.
2007–2023: Final years
In 2007, Williams starred as Nathaniel Grant in the short-lived TNT series Heartland, which was cancelled during its first-season run, and played real-life convicted murderer Michael Peterson in the Lifetime movie The Staircase Murders. Variety Laura Fries found his performance in the latter to be "effectively enigmatic". His film credits during this time included Pupi Avati's The Hideout, romantic comedy What Happens in Vegas, independent drama Howl, and Danny Boyle's Oscar-nominated biographical drama 127 Hours, in which he played the father of canyon climber Aron Ralston.File:Thora Birch & Treat Williams - TES.jpg|alt=Birch and Williams smiling to the camera|thumb|right|With Thora Birch on the set of The Etruscan Smile
In 2010, Williams authored the children's book Air Show!, which was published by Disney-Hyperion. Aimed at ages 6–9, it documents an air show with text and illustrations. Williams told Publishers Weekly that the idea for the book came about after attending an air show with his children and seeing the excitement it brought them, especially his daughter: "In the book, Ellie is the more knowledgeable of the two children, with a real desire to fly... When I was a kid, books about airplanes were considered 'boy' books. I thought it would be wonderful to empower a little girl with this love of flight".
Williams went on to appear in numerous feature films between 2012 and 2021, including Deadfall, Brazilian drama Reaching for the Moon, Andrew Fleming's Barefoot, romantic comedy Second Act, Drunk Parents, action thriller Run Hide Fight, and the sports drama 12 Mighty Orphans, in which he portrayed Amon G. Carter. Additionally, his performance in the 2018 drama The Etruscan Smile—an adaptation of José Luis Sampedro's novel—was met with praise, with Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter believing that he brought "admirable gravitas" to his role as wealthy patriarch Frank Barron. He also appeared in various television films during this period, such as the acclaimed political thriller Confirmation, playing U.S. senator Ted Kennedy; Hallmark's The Christmas House, which drew attention for being the channel's first Christmas film to feature a same-sex couple; and the award-winning Netflix musical comedy Christmas on the Square.
Williams played the principal role of Mick O'Brien on the Hallmark series Chesapeake Shores from 2016 until its final episode, which aired in October 2022. His other television appearances during the 2010s–2020s included recurring roles on White Collar as Samuel Phelps; Chicago Fire as Benny Severide; and Blue Bloods as Lenny Ross, the former police partner of character Frank Reagan. At the time of his death in June 2023, Williams had completed filming the role of Bill Paley—co-founder of CBS—in Capote vs. The Swans, the second season of anthology series Feud. Created by Ryan Murphy for FX, the show premiered in January 2024 to positive reviews, with Vultures Jackson McHenry noting, "Treat Williams, in his last filmed performance both warm and brutally chauvinistic — by far the best work in the show". In July 2024, it was revealed that Williams had received a posthumous Emmy Award nomination for the role.