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Robert Guillaume is best known for his work in television where he has earned two Emmy Awards and four NAACP Image Awards. He has had a distinguished career as a dramatic film actor and an accomplished musical performer.
He garnered a Tony nomination for his Broadway performance in Guys and Dolls and received rave reviews during his eight months as the star of the Los Angeles production of Phantom of the Opera.
But it was as Benson DuBois that Guillaume won his Emmy Awards. The first for Best Supporting Actor for Soap in 1979, the second as Best Actor in 1985, after the Benson character moved on to the series bearing his name.
He guided the character through the positions of butler, state budget director, and finally Lieutenant Governor, a transformation that is rarely seen in characters on television today.
Shortly after moving to New York City as a young man, he became one of the stage's best-reviewed young actors. His critical triumphs included Kwamina, Bambouche, Tambourines to Glory, Othello, Porgy and Bess, Apple Pie, and Jacques Brel. He went on to even greater acclaim playing leads in Purlie and Golden Boy and, of course, in Guys and Dolls and his Tony-nominated performance as Nathan Detroit.
Guillaume has also starred in theatrical films, including Disney's The Lion King, Wanted: Dead or Alive, Lean on Me, and Death Warrant.
"As a television performer on Soap, Benson, The Robert Guillaume Show, and Pacific Station, I sought consciously to avoid the stereotypical sociological traps," says Guillaume. "I always wanted kids of any background to understand the characters I've portrayed were real, that the solutions they found were true and possible. It has always been important to me to stress that there was no diminution of power or universality just because my characters are African-Americans."
Guillaume has also been the recipient of the prestigious Grammy Award for his reading of The Lion King book (on audiotape) in the voice of the beloved character, Rafiki.
TV audiences enjoyed Guillaume every week for two seasons as "Isaac Jaffe," executive producer of a national cable sports news show, on the ABC series Sports Night. It was during this show that he had a stroke and his character quickly paralleled his personal life. Robert continues to speak and advocate on behalf of others who have had a stroke and other parallelizing disabilities.
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