William Windom

Overview

Born
September 28, 1923 · Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA
Died
August 16, 2012 · Woodacre, California, USA (congestive heart failure)
Nicknames
- Willie the Weeper
- Bill
Height
5′ 10½″ (1.79 m)

Mini Bio

Family

Spouses
Parents

Trademarks

Subtle scratching of his nose
Pouting when his character is deep in thought
Left handed but ambidextrous.
Often wore a watch with the face on the inside of his wrist.
His characters often wore bow ties

Trivia

Bought a small island for $1.00 in Windom, MN, so named for his great-grandfather, a one-time member of Abraham Lincoln's "Kitchen Cabinet". The island's a wildlife refuge.
Was a tournament-level chess player and member of the International Chess Federation. His score was in the 1600s.
His great-grandfather, politician William Windom (1827-91), served in both the US House of Representatives and Senate as a Republican from Minnesota; later became Secretary of the Treasury under Presidents James A. Garfield and Benjamin Harrison. His own character of Glen Morley in The Farmer's Daughter (1963) was also a congressman from Minnesota.
During World War II he served as a paratrooper in the US Army's with B Co., 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division and fought in Operion Market Garden (the invasion of Holland), the Battle of the Bulge and D-Day.
As a five-year-old, he was a pupil of kindergarten teacher Margaret Hamilton until she threw him out for rambunctious behavior. She promoted him to first grade. She and Bill would work on the pilot for Is There a Doctor in the House (1971). They did not recall their past meeting until they began to talk about once living in Rye, NY. He would later visit her in New York City and they would go to The Russian Tea Room.

Quotes

There are two essentials, two and two only, to have any performance in the world in any medium. One is the audience and two is the author. The rest fills in. The two essentials are someone to have the idea to say it and someone to hear it. Without either one of those two, you have nothing.
Likable plus 45 cents gets you a cup of coffee. They want something that's effectively the same. As an actor, you make money by having them know exactly who you are and what you're gonna do and that's what they come back to see again in one form or another. I'm not a star; there are only about 25 stars in the whole world. You run into trouble even with people like Liv Ullmann, a fine actress, but how many people in Africa ever heard of or care about Liv Ullmann? It's good acting, wonderful, so who cares? Bring on Mickey Mouse.
I maintain that 90% of what you do in this world, whether it's bagels you eat, clothes you wear, adults you meet when you're little, plays you go to or are in, 90% is horsecrap. Five percent is just godawful and you wish you could forget it, 5% is memorable, so you better enjoy the horsecrap because nine out of ten hours in your life are gonna be spent in horsecrap. So fine, but don't go around giving it first prizes! The first prizes are too valuable--they're really for only for that 5%--of people, food, clothing, time, weather, age, whatever you want to name in your life.
[on being interviewed all over the world] You have a nice time because people are very nice, basically. I travel a lot and I see a great many of them in all parts of the country and it's always a treat. Everybody has something worthwhile to offer, for at least ten seconds, maybe ten hours, maybe ten years, whatever, but they all have that spark that's worthwhile.
I used to be known in those days as "Willie the Weeper". Whenever they needed someone to break down on a show confessing a murder or infidelity, anything where something happened to this guy and we watch him disintegrate on camera, they would say, '"Get Windom--bring in Willie the Weeper!"