Treat Williams , a 4-time Golden Globe ® Award nominee and Emmy ® Award nominee , is an actor , singer , and aviator who calls Manchester , Vermont “ home .” Over the course of his prolific and multi-faceted career , Williams has starred as the lead in Grease on Broadway , as well as television series such as Everwood , Chicago Fire , Blue Bloods , and Chesapeake Shores . He has also starred in dozens of films , including Hair , Prince of the City , Things to Do in Denver When You ’ re Dead , and Once Upon a Time in America .
Sherman : Thanks so much for joining us on VT Voices , Treat ! Let ’ s start out with the basics . Where were you born , and what was your childhood like ?
Williams : I was born in Stamford , Connecticut . My dad was a WWII veteran . He served in the occupying forces in Japan as a paratrooper . After the war , he came back and married my mom . They then moved to New Jersey , where he worked for the Merck Chemical Corporation . Three years after I was born , we moved to Rowayton , Connecticut , right on the water . Looking back on my younger years , I had an idyllic childhood , but I didn ’ t initially realize how idyllic it truly was until I grew older . Our backyard was the Long Island Sound . My mother had a little sailing and swimming school . I taught at her school , and I used to race “ blue jay ” and “ lightning ” boats on the Long Island Sound . I left home at 14 to attend prep school . I went to the Kent School in Connecticut . After that , I never lived at home again , except to visit there during the summer , but I had a wonderful childhood . My dad and my mom were really wonderful , funny , charming people .
Edward Albee play called American Dream . I played a character called “ The Young Man .” At one point in the play , a grandmother hits on this young man . I remember staring at the grandmother character with our profiles faced towards the audience . After she started hitting on me , I just did a look out to the house , a kind of a fearful look like , “ What ’ s happening to me ?” Again , that same laughter came back , and I thought “ Boy , I really like this !” I think that was the real beginning for me . I sort of unconsciously knew that this was something I was going to do . After that , my mother suggested that I try out for West Side Story in Stamford at a little theatre company called Stage Door for Youth . I made some very strong friendships there , including my friendship with Wayne Cilento , who would later star in A Chorus Line and choreograph Tommy and Wicked . Another friend of mine who I met there , Tony Spinelli , went on to become a very famous model for a while . We were all Jets and Sharks at the Stage Door for Youth together . By that time , the bug had hit me . When I got to college at Franklin and Marshall ( after playing football for my first season ), 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 . At that point , I started to get serious about learning as much as possible about the craft of acting in my freshman year at college .
Sherman : How did you first become involved in the performing arts ?
Williams : I got my start in acting in seventh grade . I wasn ’ t particularly funny in school , but I remember that there was a comedy show that was put on by my school ’ s theatre program . My mother made a big pile of tuna sandwiches as props for the play , and I also had a Coca Cola with me . I was nervous , and I poured the Coca Cola partially into the glass , and I slammed the coke bottle down on the table . It got this huge laugh . I remember loving the feeling of that laughter coming from the audience . I was also very interested in music at the time . I was learning to play guitar and singing a lot . When I first got to Kent School , my grades weren ’ t good enough to be in theatre . Eventually , I did an
Treat with his father .
Sherman : Were there any early mentors who helped to shape the trajectory of your career after you got serious about your acting ambitions ?
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