Robert Guillaume, Emmy Award-Winner Star, Dies At 89

Emmy award-winning actor Robert Guillaume died on Tuesay. The actor best known for his roles in ‘Soap’ and Benson’ and voicing Rafiki, lost his battle with cancer at age 89. He’s survived by his wife Donna Brown Guillaume, one son and three daughters.

A sad farewell to Robert

The actor passed away at his Los Angeles home after battling prostate cancer, his wife Donna Brown Guillaume confirmed on Tuesday night.

Guillaume became a star in stage musicals for his portrayal of the sharp-tongued butler in the TV sitcoms ‘Soap’ and ‘Benson’.He’s also fondly remembered for lending his voice for Rafiki in ‘The Lion King’ animated film, the delivery of his performance and the poignant message would stick with a generation forever.

“Robert was a lovely man who we brought in for one interpretation of Rafiki and who then completely reinvented it working in the studio,” said Thomas Schumacher, president, and producer of Disney Theatrical Productions, in a statement.

“His passion and dedication and willingness to keep working created an indelible Disney character for the ages.”

Tough beginnings in St. Louis

Robert Guillaume was born on Nov. 30, 1927, in St. Louis, he was one of four children. While his mother named him Robert Peter Williams, he adopted Guillaume when he became a performer, a French version of William, believing the change would give him distinction.

He had tough early years living in a back-alley apartment without plumbing or electricity; an outhouse was shared with two dozen people.His mother was alcoholic and hated him because of his dark skin, and his grandmother rescued him, taught him to read and enrolled him in a Catholic school.

He would become a rebel as a result of the unrequited love of his mother and of being scorned by nuns and students because of his dark skin.

That carried into his adult life, he was expelled from school and then the Army, though he was granted an honorable discharge. He had a daughter and abandoned the child and her mother, and then did the same to his first wife and two sons and to another woman and a daughter.

Then, seeking something better, he enrolled at St. Louis University, where he excelled in philosophy and Shakespeare, and then at Washington University (St. Louis) where he was trained by a music professor mastering his superb tenor singing voice.

Rising to fame

After suffering through a period of unemployment during the ’70s, he was cast in several plays and broke the color barrier on stage.

He was cast in an all-black revival of ‘Guys and Dolls’ as Nathan Detroit, which debuted on Broadway in 1977 and secured him a Tony nomination. He was also the first black lead in ‘Phantom of the Opera’, which was produced in Los Angeles. During this period, he also guested on sitcoms such as ‘All in the Family,’ ‘Good Times,’ ‘Sanford and Son’ and ‘The Jeffersons,’ which led to the supporting role of Benson in ‘Soap.’

In ‘Soap,’ Guillaume played the butler Benson Du Bois which was later spun off in 1979’s ‘Benson.’ Guillaume won an Emmy for ‘Soap,’ as supporting actor.’Benson’ ran on ABC for seven years until 1986. The butler slowly evolved to become a government official, deflecting early complaints by critics that his character was a “male Mammy.”

“The minute I saw the script, I knew I had a live one, every role was written against type, especially Benson, who wasn’t subservient to anyone,” he recalled in 2001.

The show brought Guillaume an Emmy in 1985 for lead actor in a comedy. Once the show was over, he starred in TV movie ‘John Grin’s Christmas,’ a black retelling of ‘A Christmas Carol’ that was his directorial debut.

He tried on another sitcom in 1989, ‘The Robert Guillaume Show,’ playing a marriage counselor. The series lasted four months before ABC canceled it. In 1995, Guillaume won a Grammy when a read-aloud version of ‘The Lion King,’ which he narrated, was cited for best-spoken word album for children.

He continued on his narrator’s role for the animated HBO series ‘Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child,’ which aired form 1995-2000.During the 2000s Guillaume made a few guest appearances on TV shows, including on ‘8 Simple Rules’ in 2003 and ‘CSI’ in 2008, but he focused more heavily on voicework for straight-to-video animated children’s films and video games.

“Relief comes from a source we cannot see but can only feel. I am content to call that source love.”