Robert Guillaume was born Robert Peter Williams in St. Louis, Missouri on November 30, 1927. He joined the Army in 1945 and was honorably discharged in 1947. In the late 1950s, he moved to Cleveland to play Billy Bigelow in Carousel at Karamu House, a historically black theater. He eventually moved to New York City, where he played Sportin' Life in a 1964 revival of Porgy and Bess and Purlie Victorious Judson in the 1972 Broadway revival of Purlie. He also toured for four years with the musical revue Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris. He was nominated for a Tony for the role of Nathan Detroit in an all-black Broadway revival of Guys and Dolls.
On television, he appeared as Benson DuBois in Soap and on the spinoff Benson. He won the Emmy for best supporting actor in a comedy series in 1979 and the Emmy for best lead actor in a comedy series in 1985. He also appeared as Isaac Jaffe on Sports Night. He appeared in the movies Lean on Me and Big Fish as well as voiced the baboon Rafiki in The Lion King. He received four N.A.A.C.P. Image Awards and won a Grammy in 1995 for best spoken word album for children for The Lion King Read Along. His autobiography, Guillaume: A Life written with David Ritz, was published in 2002.He died from complications of prostate cancer on October 24, 2017 at the age of 89.
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