A Look Back on Some of Treat Williams' Most Iconic Roles

Treat Williams built a career on incredible performances, from 'Hair' to 'Smooth Talk.' Take a look back at some of his best roles

Treat Williams, the 71-year-old actor who died in a motorcycle accident June 12, at one point had been so frustrated with the pace of his career that he learned to fly planes. In the long run, though, he figured out how to stay aloft. He was an immensely respected, highly likable performer who over the years aged from a figure of powerful sexual charisma into a beloved TV dad. Here are his most notable performances.

The Ritz (1976)

A farce set in a gay bathhouse and club, The Ritz is a little dated now — it’s most famous for giving Rita Moreno the chance to recreate her Tony-winning performance as Googie Gomez, an over-the-top singer. But Williams, often shirtless (and that’s not a bad thing), gets laughs as a dum-dum who speaks in a very high, piping voice.

Hair (1979)

Although it wasn’t a hit, director Milos Forman’s 1979 film of the groovy Broadway classic remains one of the most inventive musical adaptations of the past half-century. Williams, head crowned by a wild mop of curls, is Berger, a free-spirited hippie who — in a bitter little twist at the end — loses those glorious, unruly locks. It’s an electric performance.

Prince of the City (1981)

This was probably Williams’ peak as a movie actor. He’s at the very center of director Sidney Lumet’s two-hour, 47-minute epic about a New York City narcotics cop who gets tangled up in a Justice Department investigation into police corruption. Williams was nominated for a Golden Globe.

Smooth Talk (1985)

Based on a Joyce Carol Oates story, Smooth Talk is a small, taut, dread-filled film about a 15-year-old girl (Laura Dern) who finds herself being seduced by a much older man, a stranger named Arnold. Williams plays him with a sense of sexual menace that suggests something worse — he could even be Death as a pickup artist.

Everwood (2002-2006)

Williams became a television star with this USA series, on which he played a widowed brain surgeon relocated from Manhattan to small-town Colorado with his two kids. He earned a Teen Choice Award nomination for favorite TV parent. And, with his trim beard and flannel shirts, he instantly entered the Lumbersexual Hall of Fame.

The Christmas House (2020)

One of the best-regarded of any Hallmark holiday movie — and the first to have major LGBT+ characters — this little classic has Williams playing a warm-hearted middle-aged dad welcoming his children home at Tinsel Time.

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