Treat Williams

Born: 1 December 1951
Where: Rowayton, Connecticut

After establishing a commanding screen presence with diverse performances in Milos Forman's musical Hair and Sidney Lumet's cop drama Prince of the City, Williams seemed poised to enter the ranks of A-list actors.

But somehow he never fully capitalized on that early success, and while he delivered some excellent performances, his films have not impressed audiences.

Williams decided to pursue an acting career while attending Franklin and Marshall College. He moved to New York after graduation where he was immediately cast as an understudy to John Travolta in the long-running Broadway musical Grease.

Williams eventually assumed the leading role of Danny Zuko before moving the following year to a supporting role in Over Here, which featured the Andrews Sisters. Other stage roles followed before he moved on to feature films.

Richard Lester's The Ritz marked Williams' screen debut, but it was three years before Williams landed a role that fully utilized his unique appeal as the hippie leader Berger in the film adaptation of Hair.

He followed with Steven Spielberg's 1941 then earmed critical acclaim for his title performance in Sidney Lumet's Prince of the City.

While he continued to work regularly in features throughout the 80s and into the 90s, most notably in a sexily menacing performance as Arnold Friend in Joyce Chopra's film Smooth Talk, the actor never found that one role to propel him to the front ranks.

Critics praised his turn as a gangster in Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead, as a villainous army colonel in Mulholland Falls, and as the nemesis of The Phantom, but the films were not box office hits.

He continued in the same vein opposite Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt in The Devil's Own, then played Michelle Pfeiffer's husband in The Deep End of the Ocean, before appearing in TV movies and on stage again.

He most recently appeared alongside the likes of Tea Leoni, Debra Messing in Woody Allen's Hollywood Ending.