This isn’t the way it’s been with some people, where I have to battle with myself not to show the funny cartoon animal they voiced. There is the problem that this still is apparently from the show Benson and not from Soap, and I was briefly addicted to Soap and don’t think I’ve ever actually seen Benson, but the one is a spin-off of the other, so does it even matter? And that was before the funny cartoon animal, too.

Robert Guillaume was a stage name; he was born Robert Peter Williams in St. Louis, Missouri. He chose to change Williams to the French for William. He went to two different colleges. He spent time in the army. And then, he began to act. He’s been Nathan Detroit, Sportin’ Life, and the Phantom of the Opera. He was Frederick Douglass, Merlin, Martin Luther King. He was Detective Catfish of the Fish Police. And, yes, he was Benson and Rafiki, the two roles I suspect are the most frequently referenced these days.

People actually returned their tickets when he took over as the Phantom. I remember being a bit surprised, though I do not actually remember now who was playing the role when I saw it in 1993. Assuming I’d been able to afford that sort of thing—the ticket when I saw it was a gift from a friend, whose mom took us—I can imagine being a little disappointed at not seeing Crawford, but of course that was not entirely what got people so upset. I imagine there were some, but I saw at least one man-on-the-street segment on the news with people being irate that a black guy would get the role.

To be honest, I’m not sure how suited he would’ve been for it. Erik is, let’s be honest with ourselves, not the funniest guy going. Guillaume had the voice, but the roles of his I’ve seen tended to involve some sort of wry wit somewhere along there—even Rafiki, if you look at the role from the right angle. (I’ve not seen Fish Police, among others, so take this for what it’s worth.) Oh, there are plenty of comedic actors who are damn fine at drama, but not all of them, and I’m not sure I ever saw him in a real drama.

Another of his great roles was Isaac from Sports Night. Now, there was a role. He gets the great takedown that a young white guy has never gotten anywhere with him by comparing himself to Rosa Parks. He gets a lot of great takedowns. He knows that his job title may suggest he’s something to do with a sports program but in reality he is running a zoo. So I don’t know. Maybe someone who could be Isaac Jaffe and all those assorted doctors and detectives and so forth could have been a great Phantom. I kind of regret that I never found out.