Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Robert Guillaume, R. I. P.

Robert Guillaume Dead: 'Benson' Actor Was 89: He also portrayed Isaac Jaffe on 'Sports Night,' voiced Rafiki in 'The Lion King' and earned a Tony nomination for 'Guys and Dolls.' Robert Guillaume, the urbane actor who received two Emmy Awards for portraying the acidic butler Benson on a pair of ABC sitcoms, died Tuesday. He was 89. 

Guillaume, a baritone who also starred on the stage and voiced the wise mandrill Rafiki in 'The Lion King' (1994) and its related sequels, video games and TV series, died at his home in Los Angeles, his wife, Donna Brown Guillaume, told the Associated Press.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

A really fine actor. We saw him in a free, open-air presentation of "Othello" in DC in 1973, before his TV fame.

Deb said...

At least 25 years ago, my husband and I were at a Dodger game and Guillaume sang the National Anthem. A lot of people only knew him from Bensn and didn’t know he could sing.