Career
Williams made his film debut in the 1976 thriller film Deadly Hero. He came to world attention when he starred in the Miloš Forman film Hair (1979) which was based on the Broadway musical Hair. He has gone on to appear in over 75 films and several television series, including, most notably, 1941 (1979), Once Upon A Time In America (1984), Dead Heat (1988), Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead (1995) and Deep Rising (1998).
Williams was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for his part in Hair as George Berger. He got a second Golden Globe nomination for starring in Sidney Lumet's Prince of the City (1981) and a third for his performance as Stanley Kowalski in the television presentation of A Streetcar Named Desire. In 1996, Williams was nominated for a Best Actor Emmy Award by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for his work in The Late Shift, a HBO movie, in which he portrayed agent Michael Ovitz.
Williams has also worked as a director, winning two festival awards for directing Texan in Showtime's Chanticleer Films series.
In 1996, he played villain Xander Drax in Paramount's big budget comic book adaptation, The Phantom, in which Williams' character did his best to take over the world and kill Billy Zane's mysterious superhero.
Williams' career includes numerous stage roles. He won a Drama League Award for his work in the Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim's Follies, and another for starring in the off-Broadway production of Captains Courageous. Other notable Broadway shows include Grease, the Sherman Brothers' Over Here!, Once in a Lifetime, Pirates of Penzance and Love Letters, and off-Broadway, he has appeared in David Mamet's Oleanna and Oh, Hell (at Lincoln Center), Some Men Need Help and Randy Newman's Maybe I'm Doing It Wrong. He premiered the Los Angeles production of Love Letters and appeared in War Letters at the Canon Theatre in Los Angeles.
Williams may be best known for his leading role as Dr. Andrew Brown in the WB television series Everwood, about a New York neurosurgeon who moves his family to Colorado. Although the show's ratings were never spectacular, it won critical acclaim and had a devoted following. Williams received two SAG Award nominations (2003 and 2004) for his role on the show.
Williams has recently made several guest appearances on the ABC drama Brothers & Sisters playing David Morton, a friend and potential suitor of the Sally Field character. Williams starred in the short lived series Heartland on TNT as Nathaniel Grant, the head of a Pittsburgh organ transplant center, before it was canceled due to low ratings. He also starred in a Lifetime movie called the Staircase Murders, which aired April 15, 2007.
Williams starred in a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie, titled Beyond the Blackboard, with his former Everwood co-star, Emily VanCamp, which aired on CBS on April 24, 2011.
In early 2010, videos were posted on YouTube as well as edits made to Williams' Wikipedia page and a Facebook page made faking his death. These included a graphic and detailed explanation as to his illness and place of death. In August 2011, Williams responded to these rumors in an interview with Contact Music when speaking of more recent rumors linking him to the new Quentin Tarantino film Django Unchained. Regarding the death hoax, Williams stated, "I did see that and I think those things are dangerous for your family and friends."
Williams has been cast in the CBS television pilot Peachtree Lines as mayor Lincoln Rylan. The serial is an examination of political, social, and cultural issues in Atlanta also starring Victoria Rowell (Naomi Grace), Ving Rhames (Ving Wesley), James Van Der Beek (Garrett Cindell), Jason Dohring (Travis Diring), and Jena Malone (Sierra Jayden).
Adding to his long list of accomplishments, Williams has now published a children's book titled Air Show! (Illustrated by Robert Neubecker, and published in 2010 by Disney/Hyperion Books). The target audience being children ages three to seven, the book playfully documents the airshow experience with simple text and bold illustrations of such aircraft as a Boeing B-17, a Pitts Special biplane, and the U.S. Navy's Blue Angel F/A-18.
Read more about this topic: Treat Williams
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“I began my editorial career with the presidency of Mr. Adams, and my principal object was to render his administration all the assistance in my power. I flattered myself with the hope of accompanying him through [his] voyage, and of partaking in a trifling degree, of the glory of the enterprise; but he suddenly tacked about, and I could follow him no longer. I therefore waited for the first opportunity to haul down my sails.”
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