Image by/from Philipp Wüst
Richard Treat Williams (December 1, 1951 – June 12, 2023) was an American actor. He rose to fame with starring roles in two films released in 1979: musical Hair and Steven Spielberg’s 1941. He was best known to television audiences for his portrayal of Dr. “Andy” Brown on The WB’s Everwood (2002-2006), for which he earned two Screen Actors Guild Award nominations. His other accolades included nominations for three Golden Globe Awards, one Primetime Emmy, two Satellite Awards, and an Independent Spirit Award.
Williams starred in many films throughout his career, with credits including Prince of the City (1981), Once Upon a Time in America (1984), Flashpoint (1984), Smooth Talk (1985), Dead Heat (1988), The Phantom (1996), The Devil’s Own (1997), Deep Rising (1998), the Substitute franchise (1998-2001), The Deep End of the Ocean (1999), Miss Congeniality 2 (2005), and 127 Hours (2010).
Outside film, Williams portrayed Mick O’Brien on the Hallmark series Chesapeake Shores (2016-2022). He received Golden Globe and Emmy nominations for his work in the television films A Streetcar Named Desire (1984) and The Late Shift (1996), respectively. He also played recurring roles on White Collar (2012-2013), Chicago Fire (2013-2018), and Blue Bloods (2016-2023). On stage, Williams starred as Danny Zuko in the 1972 Broadway run of Grease. Subsequent credits included Once in a Lifetime (Broadway, 1978), The Pirates of Penzance (Broadway, 1981), Love Letters (off-Broadway, 1989), and the 2001 Broadway revival of Follies. In 2010, Williams authored the children’s book Air Show!
Williams was born in Stamford, Connecticut, on December 1, 1951, the son of Marian (nee Andrew), an antiques dealer, and Richard Norman Williams, a corporate executive. He moved with his family to Rowayton, Connecticut, when he was three. His maternal great-great-great-grandfather was William Henry Barnum, a U.S. senator from Connecticut and third cousin of the showman P. T. Barnum. Williams was a distant relative of both Robert Treat Paine—a signatory to the Declaration of Independence—and Herbert Hoover, the 31st President of the United States.
Williams played football in high school and college. He graduated from the Kent School in Connecticut and Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. As a teenager, he acted in high school and local theatre productions, and began to think seriously about an acting career during his first year of college: “I loved football very much, but I didn’t think you could be a jock and be in the theatre company at the same time … I started to get serious about learning as much as possible about the craft of acting in my freshman year.” At one point, he was performing in three college shows simultaneously: “a comedy, a Shakespeare and a musical”.
Williams launched his professional acting career in musical theatre; first as an understudy to several of the male leads in the Broadway production of Grease, and then in a touring production of that musical. From March 1974 to January 1975, he starred as Utah in the Sherman Brothers’ musical Over Here!, alongside John Travolta, Ann Reinking, Marilu Henner, and two of the Andrews Sisters. He then returned to Grease on Broadway in the lead role of Danny Zuko for three years.
I had grown up learning all of the songs from West Side Story, so I was aware of what a big deal “Broadway” was. When I got my first little dressing room at the Royale Theatre … I thought, “I’ve arrived. I’m here. This is fantastic!” … there are Sunday matinees where you think, “I don’t know how to get through this. I’m just not in the mood to go to that high-energy place”. Still, every time [I’d] hear that audience out there [and I] could feel how excited they were … [afterwards] I would leave my dressing room and I’d walk across the stage and I would just stand there. I could feel that the air was still pulsating with the energy of the actors and the audience.
—Williams on playing Danny Zuko in Grease, 2019
In 1975, Williams made his feature film debut with a supporting role in the thriller Deadly Hero. He received positive notices the following year for his portrayal of Michael Brick—a squeaky-voiced private detective—in The Ritz, a farcical British comedy based on the play of the same name, and next appeared in a small part in the Michael Caine war movie The Eagle Has Landed (1976). Williams came to worldwide attention in 1979 when he starred as George Berger—a leading member of a gang of flower children—in the Milos Forman film Hair, based on the 1967 musical. Writing for the Sioux City Journal, critic Bob Thomas called it “a rare flight of creative imagination that widens the dimensions of the movie musical”, and believed that Williams’ performance “could not be better”. In her mixed review for The New York Times, Janet Maslin wrote: “As his name might indicate, Treat Williams is one of the better things Hair has to offer … [he is] is the only one of the players who really suggests the spirit of euphoria upon which the original [stage production] meant to capitalize”. Williams’ performance earned him a nomination for the 1980 Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year.
Throughout the next decade, Williams appeared in a variety of supporting and leading film roles, such as the Steven Spielberg comedy 1941 (1979); adventure drama The Pursuit of D. B. Cooper (1981), in which he played the titular aircraft hijacker; the Sergio Leone crime epic Once Upon A Time In America (1984), where he co-starred with Robert De Niro; action-thriller Flashpoint (1984); Peter Medak’s The Men’s Club (1986), in which he co-starred with Harvey Keitel; and the cult horror-comedy Dead Heat (1988). His portrayal of Daniel Ciello—in Sidney Lumet’s 1981 neo-noir crime drama Prince of the City—brought Williams his second Golden Globe nomination and some of the strongest reviews of his career, with Roger Ebert saying of his “demanding and gruelling” performance: “Williams is almost always onscreen, and almost always in situations of extreme stress, fatigue, and emotional turmoil. We see him coming apart before our eyes”. In a retrospective review of the film published by Empire in 2000, Simon Braud wrote:
It’s doubtful whether a better performance was committed to celluloid in 1981 than Treat Williams’ portrayal of the tortured Danny Ciello. In a staggering feat of acting prowess, Williams essays a fundamentally good, yet deeply flawed, human being disintegrating under intolerable pressure with rare courage and intensity.
During this period, Williams also starred as Stanley Kowalski in the 1984 television adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire—earning his third Golden Globe nomination—and was nominated for the 1985 Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead for his portrayal of Arnold Friend—opposite Laura Dern—in that year’s Smooth Talk. In her review of the latter for The Washington Post, Rita Kempley wrote: “The [film’s] mood grows progressively darker as Treat Williams, playing a trashy dreamboat, drives up in his LeMans convertible … Matching Dern in her stunning performance, Williams is in his best role since Prince of the City”.
Between 1993 and 1994, Williams starred as divorce attorney Jack Harold—love interest of Shelley Long’s Susan—on the CBS sitcom Good Advice. The series ran for two seasons.
Williams’ film credits throughout the mid-late 1990s included Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead (1995), Mulholland Falls (1996), The Devil’s Own (1997), cult action-horror Deep Rising (1998), and The Deep End of the Ocean (1999), in which he co-starred with Michelle Pfeiffer. In 1996, he co-starred in the big-budget comic book adaptation The Phantom, with his character—villainous Xander Drax—trying his utmost to take over the world and kill the titular superhero (played by Billy Zane). The film received mixed reviews, but many critics were impressed by the visuals and performances. Writing for the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert said he found the film “smashingly entertaining”, adding: “Williams … is implacably evil … and also slick and oily in the best pulp tradition”. That same year, his “messianic” work in The Late Shift—an HBO television film in which he portrayed real-life talent agent Michael Ovitz, starring opposite Kathy Bates—was roundly praised by critics and earned him a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor.
I always just sort of remind people I wasn’t dead during the last six or seven years. I went through seven years of analysis. I got married. I had a child. We found a house in Vermont. We’ve been traveling and living. I’ve been working … I wouldn’t say the offers are rolling in, I would say they are dribbling in. There is a definite change in attitude. I think ‘he is back’ is the appropriate phrase … I think in a way your life goes where it needs to go, and maybe I needed to be out of it and to go through what I went through to grow up so I could be the actor that I’m really meant to be — the clear-headed guy that I want to be in my work and not somebody who’s living life in the fast lane … I’m really feeling extremely lucky to have a career that’s turning around, and I just want to enjoy it.
—Williams on personal struggles and the resurgence of his film career, 1995
In 1998, Williams took over the action movie franchise The Substitute, starring as Karl Thomasson—an old ally of the previous film’s Jonathan Shale (played by Tom Berenger)—in The Substitute 2: School’s Out. He continued the role with The Substitute 3: Winner Takes All (1999) and The Substitute: Failure Is Not an Option (2001). Next, he starred alongside Tea Leoni in the Woody Allen satire Hollywood Ending (2002), with Elvis Mitchell of The New York Times calling Williams’ portrayal of film studio boss Hal Jaeger “frightening and impressive”. His next major film role was that of egotistical FBI boss Walter Collins in the big-budget action comedy Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous (2005), opposite Sandra Bullock.
Williams won critical acclaim for his portrayal of Manuel—a Portuguese fisherman—in the 1999 off-Broadway production of Captains Courageous, the Musical. Next, he appeared in the part of Buddy in the Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Follies from April to July 2001.
Between 2002 and 2006, Williams played the lead role of Dr. Andrew Brown on The WB’s Everwood, a drama series about a widowed neurosurgeon moving from New York City to Colorado with his two children. The show garnered critical acclaim and a devoted following during its four-season run, and Williams was twice nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor (2003; 2004).
I was a big fan of all the Frank Capra movies … and I thought Greg Berlanti wrote a Capra-esque show … It was just so full of love and good people and surprises and dealing with real life stuff that hadn’t been dealt with on the networks before … I have extraordinarily warm feelings about it … I’m glad other people are discovering it because I think it’s probably the best television series I was ever on.
—Williams on the longevity of Everwood, 2019
Between July and November 2006, Williams made several guest appearances on the first season of the ABC drama series Brothers & Sisters, playing David Morton, a friend and potential suitor of Nora Walker (Sally Field).
In 2007, Williams starred as Nathaniel Grant in the short-lived series Heartland on TNT—which was cancelled during its first-season run—and played real-life convicted murderer Michael Peterson in the Lifetime movie The Staircase Murders. Variety’s Laura Fries found his performance in the latter to be “effectively enigmatic”. His film credits during this time included Pupi Avati’s The Hideout (2007), the Cameron Diaz/Ashton Kutcher vehicle What Happens in Vegas (2008), independent drama Howl (2010), and Danny Boyle’s Academy Award-nominated 127 Hours (2010), in which he played the father of Aron Ralston (James Franco).
In 2010, Williams authored the children’s book Air Show!, which was published by Disney-Hyperion. Aimed at ages 6-9, it documents an air show with text and illustrations. Williams told Publishers Weekly that the idea for the book came about after attending an air show with his children and seeing the excitement it brought them, especially his daughter: “In the book, [the character] Ellie is the more knowledgeable of the two children, with a real desire to fly … When I was a kid, books about airplanes were considered ‘boy’ books. I thought it would be wonderful to empower a little girl with this love of flight”.
Williams went on to appear in numerous feature films between 2012-2021, including Deadfall (2012), biographical Brazilian drama Reaching for the Moon (2013), Andrew Fleming’s Barefoot (2014), the Jennifer Lopez romantic comedy Second Act (2018), Drunk Parents (2019) opposite Alec Baldwin, action thriller Run Hide Fight (2020), and the sports drama 12 Mighty Orphans (2021), in which he portrayed Amon G. Carter. Additionally, Williams’ performance in the 2018 drama The Etruscan Smile—an adaptation of Jose Luis Sampedro’s novel, in which he co-starred with Brian Cox—was met with praise, with Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter believing he brought “admirable gravitas” to his role as wealthy patriarch Frank Barron.
Williams played the principal role of Mick O’Brien on the Hallmark series Chesapeake Shores from 2016 until its final episode in 2022. He also had recurring roles on White Collar (2012-2013) as Samuel Phelps; Chicago Fire (2013-2018) as Benny Severide; and Blue Bloods (2016-2023) as Lenny Ross, the former police partner of Frank Reagan (played by Tom Selleck).
Williams co-starred with Kerry Washington and Greg Kinnear in the acclaimed 2016 television film Confirmation, playing U.S. senator Ted Kennedy. He followed this with roles in Hallmark’s The Christmas House—which drew attention for being the channel’s first Christmas film to feature a same-sex couple— and the Emmy Award-winning Netflix film Christmas on the Square, in which he co-starred opposite Dolly Parton.
At the time of his death in June 2023, Williams had completed filming his portrayal of Bill Paley—former head of CBS—on the second season of Feud, an anthology-docudrama series created by Ryan Murphy for FX. Also starring Diane Lane and Naomi Watts, the show’s eight episodes were directed by Gus Van Sant. An official release date is yet to be announced.
In 1969, Williams’ high school football coach, who was also a flight instructor, offered to train him in a Piper PA-18 Super Cub. At age 21, Williams became a private aircraft pilot. He later became an FAA instrument-rated commercial pilot with ratings in both single engine and multi-engine airplanes, as well as rotorcraft. He held a type rating for Cessna Citation jets. He was certified as a flight instructor. Williams owned a Piper J-3 Cub, Piper Cherokee 180, Piper Seneca II, and a Piper Navajo Chieftain, which was used for family travel between homes.
Williams learned to scuba dive in 1982 along with then-girlfriend Dana Delany while they spent time on Martha’s Vineyard. They both became PADI certified divers.
Williams was open about his struggles with drug addiction during the 1980s, which he believed hampered his career at a time when he was being called an “up-and-coming Pacino or De Niro”. Speaking in 1995, he said: “[My film career] was stopped by my lack of focus and use of cocaine. I mean, I wanted to party more than I wanted to focus on my work … You don’t realize, unfortunately, until later on how fleeting fame and power in Hollywood are … I screwed it up, and I think you have to be true about these things to move on. Otherwise you’ve always got that little skeleton”.
Williams lived in Park City, Utah, and Manchester Center, Vermont, with his wife, Pam Van Sant, and their two children, Gill and Ellie.
On June 12, 2023, Williams was involved in a motorcycle crash on Vermont Route 30, in Dorset. According to the Vermont State Police (VSP), a 2008 Honda Element in the southbound lane turned into the path of Williams’ motorcycle in the northbound lane, and Williams was unable to avoid colliding with it. He was airlifted to Albany Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at the age of 71. The cause of death was “severe trauma and blood loss as a result of the crash”, according to the medical examiner.
On July 20, 2023, VSP completed its investigation, turning its results over to the Office of Bennington County State Attorney Erica Marthage, which would decide whether charges would be brought. On August 1, 2023, VSP announced that the Office of Bennington County State’s Attorney had completed its investigation of the accident. The office requested that VSP give Ryan Koss, the driver of the Honda that hit Williams, a citation and charge him with “grossly negligent operation resulting in death”. Koss will be formally charged at an arraignment scheduled for September in the criminal division of Vermont Superior Court in Bennington.
On August 4, 2023, Koss issued a statement through his attorney Ian Carleton, saying that he had obeyed all traffic rules and that the charges against him were “unwarranted”. The statement offered condolences to the Williams family and asked for privacy. The charge of “grossly negligent operation resulting in death” is a felony charge in the state of Vermont, with a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.
On September 25, 2023, Koss was arraigned in an appearance before Bennington County Superior Court. He pled not guilty to gross negligent operation resulting in death.