Treat Williams is the Connecticut-born, prep-school-educated actor who first made a serious commitment to his craft during his days at Pennsylvania's Franklin and Marshall College. Working summers with the nearby Fulton Repertory Theatre at Lancaster in the heart of Amish country, Williams performed the classics as well as contemporary dramas and musicals. After graduating, Williams--whose first name, incidentally, is a family surname on his mother's side--headed for Manhattan where he understudied the Danny Zuko role in "Grease." After working in the The Andrews Sisters musical "Over There," he made his film debut as a cop in Deadly Hero, then returned to "Grease," this time in the starring role. While he took leaves for two small film roles, in The Ritz and The Eagle Has Landed, it was his stage work in "Grease" that led to his cinematic breakthrough in Hair. Spotted by director Milos Forman, Williams was asked to read for the role of Berger, the hippie. It took 13 auditions to land the part, but the film's release catapulted Williams into stardom. He then portrayed a GI on the make in Steven Spielberg's 1941 and starred in the romantic comedy Why Would I Lie? before tackling the role of Danny Ciello, the disillusioned New York City cop who blew the whistle on his corrupt colleagues in Sidney Lumet's Prince of the City. He followed that with The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper, in which he played the legendary plane hijacker who successfully eluded capture (by Robert Duvall); Flashpoint, in which he and Kris Kristofferson starred as a pair of maverick border patrolmen who come upon a large cache of stolen money; Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America, in which he played a Jimmy Hoffa-like labor organizer; and Smooth Talk, a screen adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates' short story, "Where Are You Going?" Television viewers have seen Williams in a prestigious pair of dramas, Dempsey, a three-hour story of the hard-living heavyweight champ, and John Erman's adaptation of Tennessee Williams' classic "A Streetcar Named Desire," which pitted Williams' Stanley Kowalski against Ann-Margret's Blanche Dubois. Williams has also returned to Broadway sporadically -- first to appear in "Once in a Lifetime" while filming "Hair," and in 1981 to play the role of the pirate king in "The Pirates of Penzance."
Was a professional pilot for a year in the early 1980s. Graduated from Franklin & Marshall College in 1973 The nickname "Treat" comes from one of his maternal ancestors, Robert Treat Payne, whose signature appears on the Declaration of Independence. Certified Flight Instructor, rated in single and multi-engine airplanes and helicopters. In 2003, completed two weeks of training to qualify for flying jet engine planes. Had a brief romance with Dana Delany. Andy Brown, Williams' character on Everwood, was ranked #43 in TV Guide's list of the "50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time" [20 June 2004 issue]. Was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in June 2004. Graduated from Kent School, the same high school that Ted Danson, Peter Farrelly and Seth MacFarlane attended.