Montel Williams

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Montel Williams

Williams at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival.
Born July 3, 1956 (1956-07-03) (age 51)
Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Occupation Television Talk Show Host
Spouse Tara Fowler
Website
www.montelwilliams.com

Montel Brian Anthony Williams (born July 3, 1956) is an American celebrity and former television talk show host.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Williams was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and as a student participated in the Maryland busing movement. He was an outstanding student, athlete, musician, and student body president.[1] His father, Herman Williams, Jr., was a firefighter who became the first African-American Fire Chief in Baltimore in 1992.

[edit] Military career

Williams enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in 1974 and completed his recruit training at MCRD Parris Island, South Carolina. While training at Twentynine Palms, he was selected for training at the Naval Preparatory School. Williams was the first African American to attend the prestigious prep school. A year later, he was accepted into the United States Naval Academy.[2] In 1980, he graduated with a degree in engineering and a minor in international security affairs. Upon graduation, Williams was commissioned as an Ensign in the United States Navy.[3]

Williams served on board the USS Sampson during the U.S. invasion of Grenada. His awards include the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, two Navy Expeditionary Medals, two Humanitarian Service Medals, a Navy Achievement Medal, two Navy Commendation Medals and two Meritorious Service Medals. After 12 years of military service he departed as a Lieutenant Commander in the Navy.[4]

[edit] Television career

The Montel Williams Show was syndicated by CBS Paramount Television. In 1996, Williams received a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show Host. He was again nominated for Outstanding Talk Show Host in 2002, and the Montel Williams Show was nominated for Outstanding Talk Show in 2001 and 2002.

Williams also guest-stars in episodic television and off-Broadway plays. Among others, he portrayed a Navy SEAL lieutenant in several episodes of the television series JAG. Williams also produced and starred in a short-lived television series called Matt Waters, which appeared on CBS in 1996. He played an ex-Navy SEAL turned inner-city high school teacher.

Williams played the judge presiding over Erica Kane's (Susan Lucci) murder trial on the ABC soap opera All My Children in 2002. In 2003 Williams made a guest appearance on the soap as himself, to promote an episode of his own show on which several AMC stars were scheduled to appear. In 2004 he hosted American Candidate, a political reality show for Showtime.

On January 30, 2008, Variety reported that CBS TV Distribution terminated The Montel Williams Show when key Fox-owned stations chose not to renew it for the 2008-2009 season.[5] This followed an appearance on the show Fox & Friends in which he criticized the media's lack of coverage on the Iraq War, and took the hosts to task for their (and the media in general) excessive coverage of the death of actor Heath Ledger, contrasted with the sparse coverage of the US Soldiers dying in Iraq.

On May 16, 2008 the last episode of the Montel Williams show aired.[6]

[edit] Personal life

Williams has two daughters, Ashley and Maressa, with his first wife, Rochele See. Williams married Grace Morley, a burlesque dancer on June 6, 1992 [1]. They have a son, Montel Brian Hank, and a daughter, Wynter Grace. The couple divorced in 2000. In July 2006, Williams proposed to girlfriend Tara Fowler, an American Airlines flight attendant. They married before friends and family on a beach in Bermuda on October 6, 2007.[7]

Williams participated in the 2007 World Series of Poker main event[8], and planned to donate any potential winnings to families affected by the Iraq war. He was eliminated in Day 2. During the event Williams also spoke out about the port security bill signed in 2006 that banned on-line gaming sites from accepting money transactions from the U.S. In August of 2007, Williams was initiated as an honorary member to Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity.[citation needed]

Williams was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 1999 and now heads the Montel Williams MS Foundation.

[edit] PPA spokesman

Montel Williams is a national spokesman of the Partnership for Prescription Assistance (PPA), a patient-assistance program clearinghouse that helps low-income patients apply for free or reduced-priced prescription drugs.

On November 30, 2007, while in Savannah, Georgia to promote PPA, Montel Williams threatened reporters following an earlier interview at which a 17-year-old high school intern reporter (Courtney Scott) for the Savannah Morning News had asked him a question about whether restriction of pharmaceutical profits would discourage research and development of new drugs. Angered by the question, Williams subsequently terminated that videotaped interview. During the later encounter with Scott and another reporter, Williams, accompanied by his bodyguard, said, "I'm a big star, and I can look you up, find where you live and blow you up."[9]

Williams' public relations representatives later apologized for his hostile outburst in an issued statement, "I mistakenly thought the reporter and photographer in question were at the hotel to confront me about some earlier comments. I was wrong, and I apologize for my overreaction."[9]

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Official Montel Williams Site
  2. ^ Montel Williams - Talk show host, motivational speaker. military.com. Retrieved on 2007-03-12.
  3. ^ Montel Williams Distinctive Achievements (pdf). Montel Williams Official Website. Retrieved on 2008-02-01.
  4. ^ "TALK TV'S WILLIAMS VISITS U.S. TROOPS IN PERSIAN GULF.", Los Angeles Daily News, March 2, 1998. Retrieved on 2008-01-28. 
  5. ^ Variety - Montel Williams calls it quits
  6. ^ http://montelshow.com/media/podcast/bonus/
  7. ^ Montel Williams Marries - Weddings, Montel Williams : People.com
  8. ^ Las Vegas Now. Retrieved on 2008-05-13.
  9. ^ a b "Reporters Say They Were Threatened by Montel", Associated Press, December 1, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-11-24. 


Persondata
NAME Montel Williams
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION American talk show host
DATE OF BIRTH 1956-07-03
PLACE OF BIRTH Baltimore, Maryland
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
Languages