Vorlage:Infobox Celebrity Montel Brian Anthony Williams (born July 3, 1956 in Baltimore, Maryland) is an American television talk show host.
Military career
Williams enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in 1974 and completed his recruit training at MCRD Parris Island, South Carolina. While training at Twentynine Palms, he was selected for training at the Naval Preparatory School and a year later, he was accepted into the United States Naval Academy.[1] In 1980, he graduated with a degree in engineering and a minor in international security affairs. Upon graduation, Williams was commissioned as an ensign in the United States Navy.
Williams served on board the USS Sampson during the U.S. invasion of Grenada. His awards include the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, two Navy Expeditionary Medals, two Humanitarian Service Medals, a Navy Achievement Medal, two Navy Commendation Medals and two Meritorious Service Medals. He retired after 22 years of military service as a Lieutenant Commander in the Navy Reserve.
Television career
In 1991, he began hosting his own television show, The Montel Williams Show, syndicated by CBS Paramount Television. In 1996, Williams received a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show Host. He was again nominated for Outstanding Talk Show Host in 2002, and the Montel Williams Show was nominated for Outstanding Talk Show in 2001 and 2002.
Williams also guest-stars in episodic television and off-Broadway plays. Among others, he portrayed a Navy SEAL lieutenant in several episodes of the television series JAG. Williams also produced and starred in a short-lived television series called Matt Waters, which appeared on CBS in 1996. He played an ex-Navy SEAL turned inner-city high school teacher.
Williams played the judge presiding over Erica Kane's (Susan Lucci) murder trial on the ABC soap opera All My Children in 2002. In 2003 Williams made a guest appearance on the soap as himself, to promote an episode of his own show on which several AMC stars were scheduled to appear.
Family and personal life
Williams has two daughters, Ashley and Maressa, with his first wife, Rochele See. Williams married Grace Morley, a burlesque dancer on 6 June 1992 [1]. They have a son, Montel Brian Hank, and a daughter, Wyntergrace. The couple divorced in 2000. In July 2006, Montel proposed to girlfriend Tara Fowler, an American Airlines flight attendant. They married before friends and family on a beach in Bermuda on 6 October 2007.[2]
Williams was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1999, and has used marijuana as an analgesic, and supports its legalization for patients who suffer terminal or incurable conditions. During a 2004 episode of his show, Williams revealed that he had considered committing suicide. He established the Montel Williams MS Foundation in 1999 to raise money for research, and has authored several books about multiple sclerosis and related topics.
Williams participated in the 2007 World Series of Poker main event[2], and planned to donate any potential winnings to families affected by the Iraq war. He was eliminated in Day 2. During the event Williams also spoke out about the port security bill signed in 2006 that banned on-line gaming sites from accepting money transactions from the U.S. In August of 2007, Williams was initiated as an honorary member to Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity.
PPA spokesman
Montel Wiliams is a national spokesman of the Partnership for Prescription Assistance (PPA), a patient-assistance program clearinghouse that helps low-income patients apply for free or reduced-priced prescription drugs.
On 30 November 2007, while in Savannah to promote PPA, a hostile Williams threatened reporters following an earlier press interview at which a high-school aged apprentice reporter (Courtney Scott) for the Savannah Morning News had asked him a question about whether restriction of pharmaceutical profits would discourage research and development of new drugs. (After a terse reply, Montel subsequently terminated that videotaped interview.)
During the angry encounter with Scott and other reporters, Williams said, "I'm a big star, and I can look you up, find where you live and blow you up." [3]
Montel later apologized for the incident in a published statement, "I mistakenly thought the reporter and photographer in question were at the hotel to confront me about some earlier comments. I was wrong, and I apologize for my overreaction."
Bibliography
- Montel Williams, Paisner, Daniel: Mountain, Get Out Of My Way. Warner Books, 1997, ISBN 0-446-60417-8.
- Montel Williams, Kramer, Jill: Life Lessons and Reflections. Mountain Movers Press, Carlsbad, CA 2000, ISBN 1-58825-001-6.
- Montel Williams, Paisner, Daniel: A Dozen Ways to Sunday. Mountain Movers Press, 2001, ISBN 1-58825-005-9.
- Montel Williams: BodyChange: The 21 Day Fitness Program for Changing Your Body and Changing Your Life. Hay House, Carlsbad, CA 2003, ISBN 978-1-4019-0314-5.
- Montel Williams, Grobel, Lawrence: Climbing Higher. NAL Trade, 2005, ISBN 0-451-21398-X.
External links
References
- ↑ Montel Williams - Talk show host, motivational speaker. military.com, abgerufen am 12. März 2007.
- ↑ http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20151051,00.html
- ↑ Reporters Say Were Threatened by Montel, Associated Press, December 1, 2007. Abgerufen am 24. November 2007