(1 December 1951 - 12 June 2023)
The American actor Treat Williams has died aged 71, following a motorcycle accident in New York. Richard Treat Williams was born in Connecticut to Richard Williams, a corporate executive, and his wife Marian, an antiques dealer. At high school, Treat appeared in plays and also in local productions and took acting seriously as a possible career. After his professional start in 1972, first as an understudy, then starring as Danny Zuko in the Broadway production of Grease, he moved into films with Ivan Nagy’s thriller Deadly Hero (1975) with Don Murray and James Earl Jones. This was followed by Richard Lester’s The Ritz, a farce set in a gay sauna with Treat as a detective with a squeaky high voice.
Treat Williams went on to appear in several prestigious films including John Schlesinger’s Marathon Man (uncredited), John Sturges’ The Eagle Has Landed with Michael Caine, Milos Forman’s Hair (in which he played George Berger), Steven Spielberg’s star-studded but doom-laden 1941, and The Empire Strikes Back, in which he played two uncredited Star Wars troopers. In 1981, however, he got to star in Sidney Lumet’s Prince of the City, an epic crime drama about an NYPD officer (Williams) who sets out to expose police corruption in the force. It won best film at the Venice film festival and earned Williams a Golden Globe nomination for best actor.
Other films of note in which Treat Williams appeared include Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America, Flashpoint, a modern Western with Kris Kristofferson, Joyce Chopra’s highly-acclaimed Smooth Talk with Laura Dern (for which he was nominated best actor at the Independent Spirit Awards), Peter Medak’s The Men’s Club with Roy Scheider and Harvey Keitel, Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead, with Andy Garcia, although the last one was a decided flop. Still, there were better things ahead, such as Mulholland Falls, albeit with a mixed reception, Alan Pakula’s action-thriller The Devil’s Own with Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt, and Woody Allen’s Hollywood Ending which, despite a cast including Allen, George Hamilton, Téa Leoni, Mark Rydell, Debra Messing and Treat Williams, was the first of the director’s films not to receive a theatrical release. Danny Boyle’s survival drama 127 Hours did very well in 2010, with Treat Williams playing James Franco’s father.
Some of Williams’ films did not hit the mark and many were perhaps only fit for home consumption. His last films were Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square in 2020 and 12 Mighty Orphans, a true-life sports drama about the Mighty Mites football team from a Fort Worth orphanage in 2021. He had worked in television from 1985 to 2022, clocking up appearances in Everwood, Heartland, The Simpsons, Law & Order, Chicago Fire, Blue Bloods and We Own the City. In 1984 he was nominated for a Golden Globe for playing Stanley Kowalski in the ABC TV movie version of A Streetcar Named Desire. Treat Williams was married to Pam Van Sant and they have two children, Gill and Eleanor.
MICHAEL DARVELL
