Guillaume: A Life

Robert Guillaume always made me laugh, so I was eager to learn more about him when I picked up this book. Suprisingly, "Benson" is about as far from Robert's reality as a character could be.Born in poverty to an alcohol-addicted prostitute, Guillaume certainly didn't have a charmed start. Love and encouragement from a grandmother who showered him with love gave him a chance, and natural intelligence got him to Hollywood.Guillaume is clearly a haunted soul, and I hope this book assisted him in expunging some rather obvious demons, which he deals with along the way. Repeating the family cycle, he fathers, and then abandons a series of wives, women, and children, though he never seems sure why he repeats the pattern. A chance audition landed him the role of his lifetime, as Benson, first of the dearly missed "Soap", and then the rather limp spinoff "Benson". Success in Hollywood gives him the stability to at last enter a strong relationship, rebuild past bridges, and overcome a near debilitating stroke while performing on "Sports Night", another classic show. The chapters dealing with the stroke, and his recovery (it's great to read how "Sports Night" was reconfigured to work his disability into the script) are particularly touching, and give Guillaume the opportunity to deal not only with his illness, but with his perceived failings as an individual. It makes for some very strong, and very inspiring reading.Guillaume isn't likely, by his own admission, to win any "Father Of the Year" awards, and doesn't (fully) apologize for a somewhat soiled past. He does revel in his successes as an individual by the later years of his life, and makes up for many of his self-created messes by the end of the story. It's overall a very insightful look at both a performer and a man, and well worth reading