Robert Guillaume won a Grammy Award in 1995 for his spoken word performance of an audiobook version of The Lion King.
26 Facts About Robert Guillaume
2.
Robert Guillaume is known for his role as Eli Vance in the video game Half-Life 2.
3.
Robert Guillaume studied at Saint Louis University and Washington University in St Louis and served in the United States Army before pursuing an acting career.
4.
Robert Guillaume adopted the surname Guillaume as his stage name.
5.
Robert Guillaume toured the world in 1959 as a cast member of the Broadway musical Free and Easy.
6.
Robert Guillaume made his Broadway debut in Kwamina in 1961.
7.
Robert Guillaume recorded an LP album, Columbia CS9033, titled Just Arrived as a member of The Pilgrims, a folk trio, with Angeline Butler and Millard Williams.
8.
In 1990, Robert Guillaume was cast in the Los Angeles production of The Phantom of the Opera, replacing Michael Crawford in the title role.
9.
Robert Guillaume was the first Black actor to portray the character.
10.
Robert Guillaume made several guest appearances on sitcoms, including Good Times, The Jeffersons, Sanford and Son, Saved By The Bell: The College Years and in the 1990s sitcoms The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and A Different World.
11.
Robert Guillaume continued the role in a spin-off series, Benson, which ran for 158 episodes from 1979 until 1986.
12.
In 1985, Robert Guillaume appeared in the television mini-series North and South as abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass, who escaped from slavery and became a leader of the anti-slavery movement prior to the American Civil War.
13.
Robert Guillaume appeared as marriage counselor Edward Sawyer on The Robert Guillaume Show, Detective Bob Ballard on Pacific Station, and television executive Isaac Jaffe on Aaron Sorkin's short-lived but critically acclaimed Sports Night.
14.
Robert Guillaume suffered a mild stroke on January 14,1999, while filming an episode of the latter series.
15.
Robert Guillaume recovered and his character was later depicted as having had a stroke.
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Robert Guillaume made a guest appearance on 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter.
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Robert Guillaume's voice was employed for characters in television series Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Fish Police, and Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child.
18.
Robert Guillaume was known for the voice of Rafiki in the movie The Lion King and its sequels and spin-offs.
19.
Robert Guillaume lent his deep tenor voice as Mr Thicknose in The Land Before Time VIII: The Big Freeze.
20.
Robert Guillaume supplied the voice for Eli Vance in the 2004 video game Half-Life 2 and its immediate episodic sequels.
21.
Robert Guillaume was married twice; first to Marlene Williams in 1955, with whom he had two sons, Kevin and Jacques.
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Robert Guillaume's daughter, Melissa, was born in 1980; he and her mother, Patricia, raised her.
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Robert Guillaume then married Donna Brown in 1986; the couple had a daughter, Rachel.
24.
Robert Guillaume fathered but did not raise another daughter, Patricia, by a different mother; she was born in 1950 and was raised by her grandparents.
25.
In 1999, Robert Guillaume suffered a stroke while working on Sports Night at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California.
26.
Robert Guillaume died of prostate cancer on October 24,2017, at his home in Los Angeles, California.