Williams has had a variety of high-profile acting roles, such as Little Enos Burdette in the action-comedy Smokey and the Bandit (1977) and the villainous Swan in Brian De Palma's Phantom of the Paradise (1974),[4] which Williams also co-scored, receiving an Oscar nomination in the process.[5] Since 2009, Williams has been the president and chairman of the American songwriting society ASCAP.
Early life
Williams was born in Omaha, Nebraska,[6] the son of Paul Hamilton Williams, an architectural engineer, and his wife, Bertha Mae (née Burnside), a homemaker.[1]
One of his brothers was John J. Williams, a NASA rocket scientist, who participated in the Mercury and Apollo programs and was awarded the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, their highest honor, in 1969.[7] His other brother was Mentor Williams, also a songwriter, who wrote Dobie Gray's 1973 hit "Drift Away".[8]
An early collaboration with Roger Nichols, "Someday Man", was covered by the Monkees (a group for which he unsuccessfully auditioned[11]) on a 1969 single, and was the first Monkees' release not published by Screen Gems.[citation needed]
Williams worked on the music for a number of films, including writing and singing on Phantom of the Paradise (1974) in which he starred and earned an Oscar nomination for the music, and Bugsy Malone (1976). Williams wrote and sang the song "Where Do I Go from Here", which was used in the end credits of the film Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. He contributed lyrics to the Cinderella Liberty song "You're So Nice to Be Around" with music by John Williams, and it earned them an Oscar nomination. Along with Ascher and Rupert Holmes, he wrote the music and lyrics to A Star Is Born (also 1976), with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson. The love ballad, "Evergreen", (lyrics by Paul Williams, melody by Barbra Streisand) won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and a Grammy for Song of the Year. He has been nominated on other occasions for an Academy Award[13] and several Golden Globe Awards.[14]
In 1987 he wrote the songs performed by Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty in the film Ishtar.[15]
He wrote the music for a musical production of Happy Days that debuted in 2007 and made a cameo appearance as an animated version of himself singing "Breathe in the Sunshine" in a 1998 episode of the animated series Dexter's Laboratory.[16] He wrote and sang "What Would They Say", the theme song from the made-for-television film The Boy in the Plastic Bubble (1976).[17]
In March 2012, it was announced that Williams had "written a couple of tunes" on Random Access Memories, the album of French electronic duo Daft Punk.[20] He co-wrote and sang vocals on "Touch" and co-wrote "Beyond". Williams and Nile Rodgers were the only featured artists to speak on behalf of Daft Punk at the 2014 Grammy Awards upon their receipt of the Album of the Year award for Random Access Memories. Williams told an anecdote about his work with Daft Punk: "Back when I was drinking, I would imagine things that weren't there and I'd get frightened. Then I got sober and two robots called and asked me to make an album." He communicated a "message from the robots" to the audience: "As elegant and as classy as the Grammy has ever been is the moment when we saw those wonderful marriages and 'Same Love' is fantastic. It is the height of fairness and love and the power of love for all people at any time in any combination is what [Daft Punk] wanted me to say. Captain Kirk uses the Enterprise. [Daft Punk] sail on a ship called Generosity. They are generous in spirit ... This is a labor of love and we are all so grateful."[21]
In September 2015, Williams, along with bass player Kasim Sulton, led a global virtual songwriting collaboration at Hookist.com.[24] The mission was to write the first crowd-sourced anthem to be performed at FacingAddiction.org's concert and rally on The National Mall on October 4, 2015, headlined by Steven Tyler, Sheryl Crow and Joe Walsh among others.[25] The theme of the song was "Celebrate Recovery" and the goal was to reduce the stigma associated with addiction. Williams, Sulton and Dr. Mehmet Oz opened the show and led 10,000 people in a singalong of "Voice of Change" at the base of the Washington Monument.[26] Sulton led a singalong of the song on The Dr. Oz Show which went viral.[27]
On February 9, 1973, Williams made a joke appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in which he sang a song in full make-up as Virgil.[30] He played Migelito Loveless, Jr. in The Wild Wild West Revisited (1979), a reunion film featuring the original cast of the television series The Wild Wild West. He played himself, singing a song to Felix Unger's daughter Edna, on the television series The Odd Couple in 1974. He made his film debut as Gunther Fry in the satire The Loved One (1965).[17]
Williams composed, and sang "Flying Dreams" for the animated film The Secret of NIMH.[33]
Williams has appeared in many minor roles. He provided the voice of the Penguin in Batman: The Animated Series. He appeared on an episode of Walker, Texas Ranger as a radio DJ covering a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde. He appeared in 2008 in an episode of Nickelodeon's children's show Yo Gabba Gabba! entitled "Weather", where he performed "Rainbow Connection". He has also appeared on Cartoon Network's Dexter's Laboratory[34] where he played Professor Williams[35] in an episode entitled "Just An Old Fashioned Lab Song".
In October 1980, Williams was host of the Mickey Mouse Club 25th Anniversary Special on NBC-TV. He stated that he tried out for the show in early 1955 and was turned down. He was a frequent guest and performer on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. He appears as the man making the phone call at the beginning of the music video for Hank Williams Jr.'s song "All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight". In 2014, he appeared on Community[37] as an illegal textbook dealer who declines to purchase a batch of misprinted chemistry textbooks.[38] Williams appeared in the 2017 film Baby Driver as the Butcher, an arms dealer.[39][40]
Williams has been married three times. He has two children, Sarah and Cole Williams (born 1981),[42] from his first marriage (1971) to Kate Clinton.[citation needed] In 1993, he married Hilda Keenan Wynn,[43] daughter of actor Keenan Wynn. His third wife was writer Mariana Williams.[44]
An experienced skydiver, Williams completed over 100 jumps in the 1970s.[45]
Williams struggled with alcohol and substance abuse during the 1970s and 1980s.[17] Sober since 1990, Williams has been active in the field of recovery from addictions and became a Certified Drug Rehabilitation Counselor[41] through UCLA. In 2014, he co-authored Gratitude and Trust: Recovery is Not Just for Addicts, with Tracey Jackson.[47]
^ abKent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 338. ISBN0-646-11917-6.
^ abcdefgh"Paul Williams (visual voices guide)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved October 15, 2023. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information.
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