Treat Williams' Life in Photos

Look back at the career, personal life and passions of actor Treat Williams, who died at 71 on June 12, 2023

Treat Williams was a prolific actor in film, TV and theater, a loving husband and father and a dedicated pilot. He died at age 71 following a motorcycle accident. Look back at his best roles and happy family life with his wife and children in photos.

Treat Williams' Early Life

Richard Treat Williams was born on December 1, 1951 to Marion and Richard Nelson Williams in Rowayton, Connecticut. He played football in high school, but as he told Vermont Magazine, the acting bug bit him in his teens and he decided to pursue it as a career.

After playing football as a freshman at Franklin and Marshall, he said, "I realized that I was going to be an actor. I told the football coach that I was no longer going to be playing football. It was very hard for me to do, because I loved football very much, but I didn’t think you could be a jock and be in the theatre company at the same time."

The actor got his start understudying the Danny Zuko role in Grease on Broadway in the mid-'70s, before being cast in his first film Deadly Hero. His "first big Broadway show," as he recently recalled on Instagram, was in the Andrews Sisters musical "Over Here!" in which he costarred with (from left) John Travolta, Marilu Henner and Ann Reinking — before returning to Grease on Broadway to star as Danny Zuko until 1980.

Treat Williams' Early Career

Williams would often find himself cast as a police officer or soldier in his early career, with roles including an undercover detective in a gay bathhouse in the Rita Moreno costarring vehicle The Ritz (pictured), a G.I. in Steven Spielberg's 1941 and a cop in Sidney Lumet's Prince of the City in 1981, which earned him a Golden Globe nomination for best actor.

Treat Williams in 'Hair'

But Williams' true film breakout played completely against type when he was cast as hippie Berger in 1979's Hair. Did he know the role would change his life? "I think I was a little unconscious about that. I think I was trying to be good in a movie," Williams told Connecticut Public Radio while celebrating the film's 40th anniversary.

Treat Williams' Dating Life

The actor was part of the busy nightlife scene among 1980s actors, snapped rollerblading with Christopher Reeve at the Roxy and dating actresses including Dana Delany (pictured) and, reportedly, Laura Dern.

Treat Williams in 'A Streetcar Named Desire'

Williams got his start in theater and continued to act there as well as in TV and films. In 1984 he combined two of the mediums by performing as Stanley Kowalski in the made-for-TV adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire opposite Ann-Margret (to whom, PEOPLE reported at the time, he sent a mink-trimmed picture frame as a parting gift). The role earned him a Golden Globe nomination, and he recently recalled being "proud of this one."

Treat Williams' Wife

Williams wed Pamela Van Sant in 1988, and often posted tributes to her on his Instagram. "You are the love of my life. What joy you have given us. More adventures to come!" he wrote on this throwback photo of her with their children Gill and Ellie, posted on her birthday in February 2023.

Treat Williams' Emmy Nomination

The actor worked steadily throughout his career (with more than 125 credits on his IMDB) and in 1996 was recognized with an Emmy nomination for his work on The Late Shift, a TV dramatization of the Jay Leno/David Letterman late night wars in which he played Michael Ovitz. He attended the ceremony with his wife.

Treat Williams' Children

The actor was also a very proud parent to children Gill, born in 1992, and Ellie, born in 1998. He often posted photos of the happy times they spent together, and on Mother's Day wrote a tribute to Pam thanking her for "raising these wonderful humans into the great people they are today."

Treat Williams in 'The Deep End of the Ocean'

Williams played a grieving father whose child has gone missing opposite Michelle Pfeiffer in this 1998 film; critics raved about his "magnetic" performance and said he "excel[ed]' in the role.

Treat Williams at Cannes

The actor joined his costars and director Woody Allen at the Cannes premiere of Allen's film Hollywood Ending.

Treat Williams Was a Pilot

The actor (pictured with his wife and their dog Woody this year) first learned to fly in 1969 from his football coach, and it became one of his great passions. He had a commercial license, a certified flight instructor license and even owned an aviation company that served film and television sets for several years, and earned a Living Legends of Aviation recognition for his more than 10,000 hours in the air, according to the organization.

In 2019, he joined a historic flight to Normandy in honor of D-Day on a vintage aircraft from World War II. “I keep saying to friends that the four greatest things in my life have been my marriage, the birth of my two children and now flying this aircraft over to England and then over to France and Normandy. It’s pretty exciting,” he said at the time.

Treat Williams in 'Everwood'

From 2002 to 2006, Williams became recognizable to a whole new generation of fans as Dr. Andrew "Andy" Brown, a widowed brain surgeon who moves his children to a small town in Colorado, on the WB show Everwood — which EW called "groundbreaking" in its oral history.

Treat Williams on 'Blue Bloods'

In recent years, the actor became a Hallmark channel staple, starring in the Chesapeake Shores series and Christmas House films, and had a recurring role that was a throwback to his roots as an onscreen cop, filming episodes of CBS' Blue Bloods as detective Lenny Ross, Frank Reagan's first partner.

Treat Williams' Life

When Treat Williams died at age 71 on June 12, 2023, he was riding a motorcycle through his beloved home state of Vermont.

"Every day I wake up so grateful to see the view that I see out of my window and to be living up here," he told Vermont Magazine in 2022. "I think very few people are lucky as I am to say, 'I love where I live.' I don’t have any fantasies of being somewhere else. I have everything I want and need in Vermont. I’ve been all over the world, and I’ve never seen a place as beautiful as Vermont."

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.