INHERIT THE WINDOM

If you had asked me, at the age of ten, who my favorite actor was, I would have said “William Windom” without hesitation. I wanted to be an actor when I grew up, but I didn’t especially want Robert Redford’s or Paul Newman’s or Steve McQueen’s career. I wanted William Windom’s career.

He’s fondly remembered for his Emmy-winning role in 1969’s My World and Welcome To It, from James Thurber’s work. But a short selection of Windom’s other movie and TV credits would include To Kill a Mockingbird, The Twilight Zone, The Americanization of Emily, Hour of the Gun, The Wild Wild West, Star Trek, Mission: Impossible, Hawaii Five-O, Love, American Style, The Girl With Something Extra, Medical Center, The Man, All in the Family, The Streets of San Francisco, Escape From the Planet of the Apes, Insight, Night Gallery, Petrocelli, Barney Miller, The Bionic Woman, Murder, She Wrote, She’s Having a Baby and Ally McBeal, to name, truly, just a few.

He was equally adept at heart-wrenching drama or wry comedy. He could play villains, authority figures or suffering everymen. He worked on top-notch projects and on pop-culture kitsch, and he brought an endearing, commanding presence to both. Forty years later, I see no reason to revise my choice of favorite actor.

Windom—the great-grandson, by the way, of U.S. Senator and Secretary of the Treasury William Windom, for whom the town of Windom, Minnesota is named—passed on this week at 88. RIP to him, and also, at 95, to the legendary Phyllis Diller.