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PEOPLE & ARTS Wednesday 25 OctOber 2017
Robert Guillaume, Emmy-winning for ‘Soap’ actor, dies at 89

By HILLEL ITALIE simply called “Benson,” and abandoned the child
AP National Writer which lasted from 1979 to and her mother. He did the
NEW YORK (AP) — Robert 1986. The series made Guil- same to his first wife and
Guillaume, who rose from laume wealthy and famous, two sons and to another
squalid beginnings in St. but he regretted that Ben- woman and a daughter.
Louis slums to become a son’s wit had to be toned He worked in a depart-
star in stage musicals and down to make him more ment store, the post of-
win Emmy Awards for his appealing as the lead star. fice and as St. Louis’s first
portrayal of the sharp- The career of Robert Guil- black streetcar motorman.
tongued butler in the TV laume (pronounced with Seeking something bet-
sitcoms “Soap” and “Ben- a hard “g’’: gee-yome) ter, he enrolled at St. Louis
son,” has died at age 89. almost ended in January University, excelling in phi-
Guillaume died at home 1999 at Walt Disney Stu- losophy and Shakespeare,
Tuesday in Los Angeles, dio. He was appearing in and then at Washington
according to his widow, the TV series “Sports Night” University (St. Louis) where
Donna Brown Guillaume. as Isaac Jaffee, executive a music professor trained
He had been battling pros- producer of a sports high- the young man’s superb
tate cancer, she told The light show. Returning to his tenor singing voice. After
Associated Press. Among dressing room after a meal serving as an apprentice
Guillaume’s achievements away from the studio, he at theaters in Aspen, Colo.,
was playing Nathan Detroit suddenly collapsed. and Cleveland, the newly
in the first all-black version “I fell on the floor, and I named Guillaume toured
of “Guys and Dolls,” earn- couldn’t get up,” he told with Broadway shows “Fin-
ing a Tony nomination in an interviewer in 2001. “I ian’s Rainbow,” ‘’Golden
1977. He became the first kept floundering about on Boy,” ‘’Porgy and Bess”
African-American to sing the floor and I didn’t know and “Purlie,” and began
the title role of “Phantom why I couldn’t do it. I didn’t appearing on sitcoms such
of the Opera,” appearing know it was it was caused as “The Jeffersons” and
with an all-white cast in by my left side being weak- “Sanford and Son.”
Los Angeles. While playing er than the other.” In this Sept. 4, 1991 file photo, actor Robert Guillaume poses for Then came “Soap” and
in “Guys and Dolls, he was Fortunately, St. Joseph a portrait in Los Angeles. “Benson.” His period of
asked to test for the role of Hospital was directly Associated Press greatest success was
an acerbic butler of a gov- across from the studio. recovering from a stroke. shared with two dozen marred by tragedy when
ernor’s mansion in “Soap,” The 71-year-old actor was Because of slim ratings, the people. His alcoholic moth- his 33-year-old son Jacques
a primetime TV sitcom that taken there and treated second season proved to er hated him because died of AIDS.
satirized soap operas. for a stroke— the result of be the last for the much- of his dark skin, and his Guillaume’s first stable re-
“The minute I saw the script, a blood clot that blocked praised show. grandmother rescued him, lationship came when he
I knew I had a live one,” he circulation of blood to the Guillaume resumed his ca- taught him to read and married TV producer Don-
recalled in 2001. “Every role brain. They are fatal in 15 reer and traveled as a new enrolled him in a Catholic na Brown in the mid-1980s
was written against type, percent of the cases. spokesman for the Ameri- school. and fathered a daughter,
especially Benson, who Guillaume’s stroke was mi- can Stroke Association. He Seeking but denied his Rachel. At last he was able
wasn’t subservient to any- nor, causing relatively slight also made appearance mother’s love and scorned to shrug off the bitterness
one. To me, Benson was the damage and little effect on for the American Heart As- by nuns and students be- he had felt throughout his
revenge for all those ste- his speech. After six weeks sociation. “I’m a bastard, a cause of his dark skin, the life. “To assuage bitterness
reotyped guys who looked in the hospital, he under- Catholic, the son of a pros- boy became a rebel, and requires more than human
like Benson in the ‘40s and went a therapy of walks titute, and a product of the that carried into his adult effort,” he wrote at the end
‘50s (movies) and had to and sessions in the gym. poorest slums of St. Louis.” life. He was expelled from of his autobiography. “Re-
keep their mouths shut.” He returned to the second His early years were spent school and then the Army, lief comes from a source
The character became so season of “Sports Talk,” in a back-alley apartment though he was granted we cannot see but can
popular that ABC was per- and it was written into the without plumbing or elec- an honorable discharge. only feel. I am content to
suaded to launch a spinoff, script that Isaac Jaffee was tricity; an outhouse was He fathered a daughter call that source love.”q

Mark Wahlberg hopes God

forgives him for ‘Boogie Nights’

CHICAGO (AP) — Mark he has prayed for forgive- youths dealing with violent
Wahlberg hopes God will ness for any of his movies. crime in Chicago to relate
forgive him for his turn as “Boogie Nights” follows the to how he turned his life
a porn star in the 1997 film career of Wahlberg’s char- around.
“Boogie Nights.” acter Dirk Diggler through “I feel remorse when I’ve
Wahlberg told the Chicago the porn industry in the made mistakes,” he later
Tribune ahead of an event 1970s and 1980s. told the audience at the
with Chicago Cardinal Bla- Wahlberg also touched on event. “If I could go back
se Cupich on Friday that he his troubled youth. Wahl- and change a lot of things
hopes “that God is a movie berg spent time in jail for a that I did, I would. I look for
fan and also forgiving” be- racially motivated attack in ways to give back.” In this Tuesday, June 20, 2017, file photo, Mark Wahlberg attends
cause he says he’s made 1988, when he was 16. Wahlberg has talked fre- the U.S. premiere of “Transformers: The Last Knight” at the Civic
“some poor choices” in the He told the Tribune that quently about his Catholic Opera House on in Chicago.
past. Wahlberg listed “Boo- “the bad decisions” of his faith and hosted a Phila- Associated Press
gie Nights” when asked if past may make it easier for delphia event honoring Pope Francis during his U.S. visit in 2015.q