"If I allow the fact that I am a Negro to checkmate my will to do, now, I will inevitably form the habit of being defeated.""Judge not, lest you be so fearful of judgment that you can hardly breath."
Williams is responsible for a number of enduring pop hits from the 1970s, including a number of hits for Three Dog Night (including "An Old Fashioned Love Song", "The Family of Man", and "Out in the Country"), Helen Reddy ("You and Me Against the World"), and The Carpenters, most notably "Rainy Days and Mondays," "I Won't Last a Day Without You," and "We've Only Just Begun", which has since become a cover-band standard and de rigueur for weddings throughout North America. "We've Only Just Begun" was originally a song for Crocker National Bank television commercial featuring newlyweds. An early collaboration with Roger Nichols, "Someday Man", was covered by The Monkees (a group for which he auditioned but was not cast) on a 1969 single, and was the first Monkees' release not published by Screen Gems. Bobby Sherman also sang "Cried Like a Baby". Anne Murray sang "Talk It Over in the Morning". He also wrote the cantata Wings with music by Michel Colombier.
A frequent cowriter of Williams was musician Kenneth Ascher; their songs together included the popular children's favorite "The Rainbow Connection", sung by Kermit the Frog in The Muppet Movie. Williams also collaborated with Biff Rose, notably on the song "Fill Your Heart", originally recorded by Tiny Tim as the B-side of his 1968 hit "Tiptoe Through The Tulips" and subsequently covered by David Bowie on his album Hunky Dory. Most recently, he collaborated with Scissor Sisters on their second album, Ta-Dah. He first was a part of a short lived rock group called "Holy Mackerel".
Williams has worked on the music of a number of films, including writing and singing on Phantom of the Paradise (in which he also starred and earned an Oscar nomination for the music) and Bugsy Malone. He contributed lyrics to the song You're So Nice to Be Around with music by John Williams, and it earned them a Oscar nomination. Along with Kenneth Ascher and Rupert Holmes, they wrote the music and lyrics to A Star Is Born, with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson. The bittersweet love ballad, Evergreen, from the movie won the Academy Award for Best Song of The Year.
He is a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and his songs have been performed by both pop and country music artists. He has won one Academy Award for best song (Evergreen) from A Star Is Born (co-written by the artist who performed it, Barbra Streisand) and has been nominated for several others.
He wrote the music for a musical production of Happy Days that debuted in 2007.
In April 2009, Williams was elected President and Chairman of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers).
Although predominantly known for his music, Paul Williams is also an actor, appearing in films and many television guest appearances, notably as the Faustian record producer Swan in the cult film Phantom of the Paradise (for which he also wrote the songs), a rock and roll remake of Phantom of the Opera, and as Virgil, the genius orangutan in Battle for the Planet of the Apes. His most recognizable role is "Little Enos Burdette" in Smokey and the Bandit. He also played Miguelito Loveless Jr. in The Wild Wild West Revisited, a reunion movie of the original Wild Wild West, and played himself, singing a song to Felix Unger's daughter Edna, in "The Odd Couple." He made his film debut as "Gunther Fry" in the 1965 satire "The Loved One." He also wrote for Mort Sahl in the 60's.
After appearing on The Muppet Show in 1976, Williams worked closely with Jim Henson's Henson Productions on The Muppet Movie, most specifically on the soundtrack, and even had a cameo in the movie as the piano player in the nightclub where Kermit the Frog meets Fozzie Bear.
Williams has appeared in many small roles. He provided the voice of The Penguin in The Animated Series. He had a role in Voyager as Prelate Koru of the Qomar Planetary Alliance, a race technologically superior to the Federation but lacking musical ability, and also appeared on an episode of Texas Ranger as a radio DJ covering a modern day Bonnie and Clyde pursued by Walker . He recently appeared in 2009 in an episode of Nickelodeon's children's show, "Yo Gabba Gabba!", entitled Weather, where he performed "The Rainbow Connection". He has also appeared on Cartoon Network's "Dexter's Laboratory" where he played Professor Williams in an episode entitled "Just An Old Fashioned Lab Song".
He made numerous television appearances in the 1970s and 1980s, including guest appearances on Hawaii Five-O, Match Game '79, The Love Boat, The Hardy Boys, The Odd Couple (as himself), The Muppet Show, The Fall Guy, and The Gong Show. He has also guest-starred in the Babylon 5 episode "Acts of Sacrifice" (Season 2 Episode 12) as Taq, the aide to Correlilmurzon, an alien ambassador whose species finalizes treaties and agreements by having sex with the other signees. In a bit of subtle irony, Williams also appeared in the Voyager episode "Virtuoso" as the leader of a planet that has never heard music before. Williams appeared on an episode of Picket Fences as the brother of the just deceased Ginny Weedon (Zelda Rubinstein). While eulogising Ginny, he sings a small part of "the Rainbow Connection". He starred as Ferdinand the Bull in a musical 1/2 hour TV production of the same name written by the Sherman Brothers.In October 1980 he was host of the Mickey Mouse Club 25th Anniversary Special on NBC-TV. He stated that he tried out for the show in early 1955 and was turned down.
Williams was born in Omaha, Nebraska, the son of Bertha Mae (née Burnside), a homemaker, and Paul Hamilton Williams, an architectural engineer. He is married to writer Mariana Williams, and has two children, Sarah and Cole. His brothers are the late John Williams, a NASA rocket scientist, and Mentor Williams (fiancé of country legend Lynn Anderson), a successful songwriter in his own right who penned Dobie Gray's 1973 hit, "Drift Away."
Williams has been active in the field of recovery from addictions.
