Photo by Joe Scarnici/WireImage
Emmy award winning actor Robert Guillaume, most known for his role in Benson, died at his home Tuesday in Los Angeles. His widow, Donna Brown Guillaume, told the Associated Press he’d been battling prostate cancer.
Benson debuted on ABC in 1979 and ran until 1986. Variety says, “the butler slowly evolved to become a government official, deflecting early complaints by critics like the Washington Post’s Tom Shales that his character was a “male Mammy.”
Guillaume was also known as the the voice of Rafiki in The Lion King, for which he a won a Grammy for a spoken word recording.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the Guillaume family.
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