Actor rose from slums to staron stage and TV

NEW YORK — Robert Guillaume, who ascended from smudged beginnings in St. Louis ghettos to wind up plainly a star in organize musicals and win Emmy Awards for his depiction of the sharp-tongued head servant in the TV sitcoms "Cleanser" and "Benson," has passed on at age 89. 

Mr. Guillaume passed on at home Tuesday in Los Angeles, as indicated by his dowager, Donna Brown Guillaume. He had been doing combating prostate disease, she said. 

Among Mr. Guillaume's accomplishments was playing Nathan Detroit in the principal all-dark form of "Folks and Dolls," acquiring him a Tony assignment in 1977. He turned into the principal African American to sing the title part of "Ghost of the Opera," in a Los Angeles-based creation, and was the voice of the shaman-slice mandrill Rafiki in the film rendition of "The Lion King." 

Mr. Guillaume won a Grammy in 1995 when a read-so anyone might hear rendition of "The Lion King," which he described, was refered to for best talked word collection for youngsters. He likewise filled in as storyteller for the enlivened HBO arrangement "Joyfully Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child," which circulated shape 1995-2000. 

While playing in "Folks and Dolls, he was approached to test for the part of an astringent head servant of a representative's house in "Cleanser," a prime-time TV sitcom that caricaturized cleanser musical shows. 

"The moment I saw the content, I knew I had a live one," he reviewed in 2001. "Each part was composed against sort, particularly Benson, who wasn't subservient to anybody. To me, Benson was the reprisal for each one of those stereotyped folks who resembled Benson in the '40s and '50s (films) and needed to keep their mouths close." 

The character turned out to be popular to the point that ABC was influenced to dispatch a spinoff, just called "Benson," which kept going from 1979 to 1986. In the arrangement, the fundamental character went from running the kitchen for a representative to turning into a political associate to in the end getting to be lieutenant senator. 

Subsequent to anguish a stroke in 1999, Mr. Guillaume (articulated with a hard "g'': well yome) continued his profession and went as another representative for the American Stroke Association. He likewise showed up for the American Heart Association. 

In "Guillaume: A Life," his 2002 life account, he exposed his vexed life. He was conceived illegitimate on Nov. 30, 1927, in St. Louis, one of four youngsters. His mom named him Robert Peter Williams; when he turned into an entertainer he received Guillaume, a French adaptation of William, trusting the change would give him qualification.