R.I.P. Treat Williams

[the winter tree]

Actor Treat Williams was killed a few days ago in a motorcycle accident. It happened in Dorset,Vermont, about an hour from where I live in Southern Vermont. Many may remember him for playing the lead in the movie version of "Hair". He was 71.

[nycsteve]

Williams was a very watchable actor. I enjoyed his films. RIP

[aith01]

Sad news. I liked him. Indeed, very watchable.

[dropforge]

Treat Williams was a great actor who made the films he was in better, the same way guys like Devane and Walken do.

[Dana5140]

For me, his best role will always be as Arnold Friend in Smooth Talk, where he was downright scary in a role that was not a horror story.

[the winter tree]

For me, his best role will always be as Arnold Friend in Smooth Talk, where he was downright scary in a role that was not a horror story.

Yes, he was a very creepy character. I think that was one of Laura Dern's first movies.

[Scrotum Scissor]

He was a far better actor than credit dued him throughout. His performance in Prince of the City (whose screenplay was upheld by Robert Altman as possibly the best he'd ever read) is still toted as one of extremely few technically "exemplary" - implying near-perfect - actjobs ever in Hollywood.

His performance in Hair - yup, that's his voice on singing! - is recalled and recognized, but not fully hailed.

The guy absolutely loathed the jetset commotion of celebritism in Hollywood. Meaning also the liberal left junction of its "value-doctrine". For which he was obviously deemed to second tier renown. Of course, implications in necessitated choices of career moves didn't exactly help either. His "redder Redford" image hardly survived the yuppy 80s, and he was essentially reduced to playing good-dad roles in syncopated TV family dramas and the likes.

Sidney Lumet stated that Williams was one of the finest actors he ever worked with. You'd have to know who Lumet actually was to truly appreciate the depth and weight of such a statement, though.

Today we've got the Marvel Universe.

[Dana5140]

SS- Why would you assume we do not know who Lumet is? And yes, the MCU is an absolute blight. I am reading Burn It Down right now and it is a book that while actually looking at a separate issue (sexism and mistreatment in Hollywood) offers telling insights into this as well. Which has nothing to do with Treat Williams, but for those of us who follow film-making and movies, we know who he is and what he has done.

[nycsteve]

The marvel films suck the oxygen out of the room leaving us with to few movies that are actually about something. I will make an exception for The Gaurians of The Galaxy movies , which I like.

[Scrotum Scissor]

SS- Why would you assume we do not know who Lumet is?

Not my intention at all; on the contrary I recall from other threads we've had on cinema that there's significant interest in 'New Hollywood' filmmaking - of which Lumet was an essential exponent.

I was simply pointing to Lumet's status as somewhat of an auteur or a "director's director" rather than a company's such - as with the beforementioned Altman, Peter Bogdanovich, Terrence Malick and Alan Pakula.

[Trane]

His performance in Hair - yup, that's his voice on singing! - is recalled and recognized, but not fully hailed.

TBH, I only remember him as Berger in the apazing Forman-adapted Hair movie - the only muscal I don't hate - and I love this one - I must've seen it some 15 times (never did that with any other movie) and I still get chivers down my spine on the opening and closing scenes - songs.

What a fuckingstastic role he had too.

[Digital_Man]

^I agree. Hair is pretty much the only thing I know him from also. I only saw the movie once when it first came out (I was just 9 years old) but it still made an impact on me.

On a side note, my brother and his wife (and her mother) went to a sixties concert/ festival the other night that featured, among other bands, the Cowsills who did the original hair song. I was surprised when they told me they didn't mention Treat even though they weren't involved with the movie version. Still, you think they would dedicate the hair song to him since his death was rather recent.

A bit belated on my part but RIP Treat.

[rapidfirerob]

Sad to hear this a few days ago. He was great in Prince Of The City.

[Plasmatopia]

I never realized he lived in Dorset. I noticed a couple people commenting on Reddit that he was well-loved within that community and they felt he was sort of a "real Vermonter" (whatever one wants to believe that means).

[Burley Wright]

Sad to hear this a few days ago. He was great in Prince Of The City.

I second the nomination of Prince of the City. If this and Hair were all he ever did he'd still have earned his place.

[Shadow]

^I agree. Hair is pretty much the only thing I know him from also.

He was on all kinds of TV shows. I remember him from a Law and Order show where he was a retired football player with brain damage and couldn't remember having sex with an under aged girl. In the end he ended up taking police officers gun and shooting himself.

[Bake 2]

Maybe not his most critically esteemed role, but the "I hate eggs" Bluto like army corporal he played in 1941 made me a fan instantly. Slim Pickens as Hollis P Wood on the "Jap" sub faking that castor oil crackerjacks compass poop out was another high point.