William Daniels

For other people named William Daniels, see William Daniels (disambiguation).

William Daniels
Daniels at the Emmy Awards, September 20, 1987
Born	William David Daniels (1927-03-31) March 31, 1927 Brooklyn, New York, United States
Alma mater	Northwestern University
Occupation	Film, television, stage actor
Years active	1950 – present
Spouse(s)	Bonnie Bartlett (1951-present)
Awards	Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series (1985, 1986)

William David Daniels (born March 31, 1927) is an American actor and former president of the Screen Actors Guild (1999 to 2001). He is known for his performance as Dustin Hoffman's father in The Graduate (1967), as Howard in Two for the Road, as John Adams in 1776, as Carter Nash in Captain Nice, as Mr. George Feeny in ABC's Boy Meets World, as the voice of KITT in Knight Rider, and as Dr. Mark Craig in St. Elsewhere, for which he won two Emmy Awards.

Early life

William Daniels was born in Brooklyn, New York, and he is the son of Irene and David Daniels, a builder. He graduated from Northwestern University in 1949, where he was a member of Sigma Nu fraternity. He has been married to actress and fellow Emmy Award-winner Bonnie Bartlett since June 30, 1951. They have two children.

Career

William Daniels began his career as a member of the singing Daniels family in Brooklyn, New York. He made his television debut as part of a variety act (along with other members of his family) in 1943, on NBC, then a single station in New York. He made his Broadway debut in 1945, in Life With Father, and remained a busy Broadway actor for decades afterwards. Broadway credits include starring or supporting roles in 1776, A Thousand Clowns, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever and A Little Night Music. He earned an Obie Award for The Zoo Story (1960).

Daniels' motion picture debut was as a school principal in the 1963 anti-war drama Ladybug Ladybug. In 1965, he reprised his Broadway role as a child welfare worker in the screen version of A Thousand Clowns. In 1967 he starred in The Graduate with Dustin Hoffman, and Anne Bancroft. In 1969, Daniels starred as John Adams in the Broadway musical 1776; he also appeared in the film version in 1972. Two years later, he co-starred with Larry Hagman, Linda Blair and Mark Hamill in Richard Donner's telefilm Sarah T. - Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic.

Daniels' first network television appearance came in 1952 when he portrayed the young John Quincy Adams, eldest son of John and Abigail Adams in the Hallmark Hall of Fame drama A Woman for the Ages. In 1976, he reprised the role as the middle-aged and elder John Quincy Adams in the acclaimed PBS miniseries The Adams Chronicles (George Grizzard played John Adams).

He appeared as acid-tongued (but well-meaning) Dr. Mark Craig in St. Elsewhere from 1982 to 1988, for which he won two Emmy awards. Almost simultaneously, he provided the voice of KITT in Knight Rider from 1982 to 1986. Daniels said in 1982, "My duties on Knight Rider are very simple. I do it in about an hour and a half. I've never met the cast. I haven't even met the producer." Daniels requested that he not receive on screen credit for the role.

He reprised the voice-only role of KITT in 1991 for the television movie Knight Rider 2000, again in the movie The Benchwarmers, yet again in an AT&T commercial about talking machines, and twice in The Simpsons as well as at the Comedy Central Roast of his co-star David Hasselhoff.

Daniels then portrayed teacher (later principal) George Feeny at John Adams High School in Boy Meets World from 1993 to 2000. Daniels also starred in the 1967 superhero sitcom Captain Nice, and was a regular on the 1970s TV series Freebie and the Bean and The Nancy Walker Show. A familiar character actor, he has appeared as a guest star on numerous TV comedies and dramas, including Soap, The Rockford Files, Quincy, M.E., and many others.

Awards

Refused 1969 Tony Award nomination for Featured Actor in a Musical in "1776."

In 1986, both Daniels and his wife Bonnie Bartlett, who also played his fictional wife on St. Elsewhere and Boy Meets World, won Emmy Awards on the same night, becoming the first married couple to accomplish the feat since Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne in 1965. Lunt and Fontanne were the first to win Emmy Awards for a film, and Bartlett and Daniels were the first couple to win for a television series.

Northwestern University's annual William Daniels Awards honors the top performers, directors, choreographers, etc. in campus theater productions throughout the year.

Filmography

• Played Fred Pearson, an efficiency expert, in McCloud episode "The Day New York Turned Blue".
• The father of the character Benjamin Braddock, played by Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate (1967), despite being only ten years older than Hoffman.
• John Adams in both the Broadway and film version of 1776.
• Played agent to Gayle Hunnicuts's character in "Marlowe" (1969), starring James Garner
• G. Gordon Liddy in the 1979 TV adaptation of John Dean's book "Blind Ambition".
• Albert Amundsen, an officious social worker who tries to strip the protagonist of the custody of his nephew in A Thousand Clowns (1965).
• Captain Nice, a comedy TV series that ran from January–May 1967 on NBC. Riding the tide of the camp superhero craze of the 1960s, the show's premise involved police chemist Carter Nash, a mild-mannered mama's boy who discovered a secret formula that, when taken, transformed him into Captain Nice.
• A physician named John Bonifant in Death in the Family, the second made-for-TV movie of the 1970s Incredible Hulk TV series.
• The voice of KITT in Knight Rider.
• Played Theatre producer Walter Lamb in the 1982 whodunnit Rehearsal for Murder, opposite Robert Preston and Lynn Redgrave.
• Played Austin Tucker in the 1974 film The Parallax View, across from Warren Beatty.
• Played Police Lt. Jack Matteo in Kolchak: The Night Stalker episode 'The Vampire', opposite Darren McGavin's Carl Kolchak
• Played New York Socialist leader Julius Gerber in Warren Beatty's 1981 historical drama, Reds.
• An episode of The Rockford Files as high-handed District Attorney Gary Bevins, who conducts a grand-jury hearing at which Jim Rockford is subpoenaed to testify.
• Another "Rockford Files" episode as an art collector who hires Rockford to acquire rare Cormorant statues (similar to "Maltese Falcon".)
• Norman, a radio executive attending a Halloween party with coworkers; he appears dressed as a clown for the party, and unwittingly picks up Cylon hitchhikers in the Galactica 1980, episode "The Night the Cylons Landed".
• Reverend Hutchinson in the 1996 film adaptation of Shirley Jackson' "The Lottery"
• The voice of Scythe 2.0. in The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, episode "Scythe 2.0.".
• The voice of a robot in an episode of Kim Possible.
• Judge Harold Bedford in the 1987 film Blind Date, with Bruce Willis and Kim Basinger.
• Guest starred in an episode of Scrubs. His appearance involved three other cast members from St. Elsewhere; they played hospitalized doctors.
• Howard Manchester in 1967's Two for the Road.
• George Summers in the 1977 Carl Reiner film Oh, God!
• Arthur Spooner's nemesis, Philip Waldecott in The King of Queens.
• The unnamed judge in the 2007 film Code Name: The Cleaner.
• He played the skating commissioner who bans the two main characters from skating in Blades of Glory.
• "Andrew Schmidt" Season 2 The Closer.
• Scandal-sheet publisher "Reardon" Quincy, M.E. Episode: A Star Is Dead
• Forensic pathologist "Dr. Charlie Volmer" Quincy, M.E. Episode: Last Rights
• The father of Richard Lestrange in the 1980 film The Blue Lagoon.
• An average American suburban father in The President's Analyst.
• A card-player coming over to the house of Uncle Bob in Magic Kid 2.
• Mr. George Feeny, teacher and neighbor on Boy Meets World.
• Judge Milton Brody, during the fifth season of Boston Legal.
• The son of a patient of Dr. Robert Hartley in the TV series The Bob Newhart Show.
• The senior social worker in the Jason Robards film A Thousand Clowns.
• The agent of Tom Selleck's character in Her Alibi.
• Dr. Thomas in season 9 of Grey's Anatomy.

External links

• William Daniels at the Internet Movie Database
• William Daniels at AllRovi