The HistoryMakers

Actor Robert Guillaume was born Robert P. Williams November 30, 1927 in St. Louis, Missouri. Raised by his grandmother, Jeanette Williams, Guillaume attended St. Nicholas School where, as a promising singer, he idolized Paul Robeson, Roland Hayes and William Warfield. Expelled by St. Joseph's High School, Guillaume joined the United States Army in 1945 where he served until 1947. Returning to St. Joseph's High School, Guillaume graduated and then worked as a postal clerk and a streetcar driver while attending St. Louis University and Washington University, majoring in music. In 1957, he won a nine-week classical music summer scholarship to Aspen, Colorado. There he met Russell and Rowena Jelliffe who invited him to join Karamu House Theatre in Cleveland, Ohio.

At Karamu House Theatre, he changed his name to Guillaume (which is French for Williams), received his first acting lessons and befriended Ron O'Neal who would later cast him in Superfly TNT (1973). In 1959, Guillaume toured Europe with Quincy Jones, Clark Terry and Harold Nicholas in the musical Free and Easy. Spending most of the 1960s and 1970s in musical theatre and drama, Guillaume appeared in Kwamina (1961), Fly Blackbird (1962), Tambourines to Glory (1963), Golden Boy (1965), Porgy and Bess (1965–1972), Purlie (1971), Othello (1973) and Guys and Dolls (1976). In 1968, Guillaume made his first television appearance on Diahann Carroll's Julia. Many programs followed, but Guillaume achieved stardom when he won an Emmy Award playing the acerbic butler, Benson on ABC's hit sitcom, Soap in 1979. Soon, Guillaume reprised the role of Benson DuBois in his own sitcom, Benson (1979–1986). Nominated five times for best actor in a comedy series, Guillaume won another Emmy in 1985 and appeared in The Robert Guillaume Show, the first comedy about an interracial family, in 1989. In 1994, Guillaume became the voice of Rafiki, the mandrill sage in Walt Disney's The Lion King and its sequels. That same year, he played Gleason Golightly in Derrick Bell's Space Traders.

Producer and director of John Grin's Christmas (1988), Guillaume also produced The Kid with the 2000 I.Q (1983). After suffering a stroke in his dressing room while working on the sitcom Sports Night, Guillaume made history by returning to the show. He went on to appear in more films, including Big Fish (2003), Tough Like Wearing Dreadlocks (2005) and Jack Satin (2005). Semi retired, Guillaume has four children and lives in Los Angeles.

Guillaume was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on April 29, 2005.