Don Williams, who partnered with Andy Williams and their brothers, Dick and Bob, in a singing foursome that carried out on the radio, within the motion pictures and with Bing Crosby and Kay Thompson, has died. He was 100.
Williams died Friday of pure causes at his dwelling in Branson, Missouri, his spouse, Jeanne, informed The Hollywood Reporter.
Born on Oct. 9, 1922, Don was the second oldest of the Wall Lake, Iowa-bred quartet. He and his brothers would work mornings on their very own stay radio present in Des Moines, Iowa, after which head off to high school.
Doris Day knew them since they have been youngsters. “Typically I might go over to their home, and we might sing collectively,” she recalled after Andy Williams’ dying in September 2012. “They requested me to hitch their group, however my vocal coach thought I needs to be out by myself.”
The boys additionally carried out on stations in Chicago and Cincinnati — their dad, a railroad employee, moved the household round so the children may carry out in greater cities — earlier than they got here to Los Angeles and backed up Crosby on his 1944 hit “Swinging on a Star.” Later, they teamed with Thompson to kind a preferred nightclub act (that they had a stint on the Plaza in New York).
Thompson, who headed the vocal division at MGM, put the brothers within the studio choir, and so they labored on movies together with Anchors Aweigh (1945), Ziegfeld Follies (1945), The Harvey Women (1946) and Good Information (1947).
In addition they appeared within the musicals Janie (1944), Kansas Metropolis Kitty (1944), One thing within the Wind (1947) and Women’ Man (1947).
With out his brothers, Don appeared on a 1956 episode of Playhouse 90 and headlined on the Tropicana resort quickly after it opened in Las Vegas in 1957. He additionally sang in commercials, on The Tonight Present and on applications hosted by Eddie Fisher and Nat King Cole.
Later, he grew to become an agent and supervisor, together with his purchasers together with Mary Tyler Moore and singers Ray Stevens and Roger Miller.
Everett Assortment
Throughout World Battle II, he served with the U.S. Service provider Marine with Dick, and each have been radio operators on the identical tanker. (Bob additionally was within the Service provider Marine; Andy was too younger.)
Don Williams County Park, a recreation space in Boone County, Iowa, is known as for him.
Andy Williams, recognized for his easy-listening hits “Moon River,” “Days of Wine and Roses” and “The place Do I Start?” and for his long-running TV selection present, was born in 1927 because the youngest of the boys. He died at age 84.
Bob Williams, born in 1918 because the oldest, died in September 2003 at age 85. And Dick, born in 1926, died in Might 2018 at age 91.
The 4 reunited typically for Andy Williams’ Christmas specials.
Along with his spouse — they have been collectively for 41 years — Don’s survivors embrace his twin sons, David and Andy, and a grandson, Harrison. His sons recorded because the Williams Brothers, too, with their songs together with “What’s Your Title” and “Can’t Cry Arduous Sufficient.”
