Mykelti Williamson - Biography

Last Editor: supergirlcr21				Mykelti Williamson Biography -   Name : Mykelti Williamson Date of birth : 4 March 1960 Place of birth : Saint Louis, Missouri, USA Height : 6' 1½

Mykelti Williamson Trivia -

Jurors acquitted him of attempted manslaughter in the stabbing of his ex-wife's companion. [4 September 1998] Arrested for allegedly stalking his ex-wife and stabbing a friend. Was released on $180,000 bail next day. [5 January 1998] Mykelti is pronounced like "Michael Tee". Was an alternate for The Lockers, a featured dance group on Soul Train. Worked with producer Mann, Michael in the pilot episode of "Miami Vice" (1984) and later reunited with Mann in Heat (1994). Miami vice was produced by Michael Mann, Mykelti guest starred in the pilot episode. They would later collaborate in Heat and Ali with Michal Mann as director. Invited to join AMPAS in 2005. Has two daughters with Sandra Spriggs, named Nicole and Maya His other daughter, Phoenix is from his marriage with Cheryl Chisholm

Mykelti Williamson Detailed Biography -

His name, Mykelti, means "spirit" or "silent friend" in the Blackfoot language of his grandfather's ancestors, and Williamson got his big break as Bubba, the equally slow-witted friend to "Forrest Gump" (1994) who can tell you everything you ever wanted to know about shrimp. He had been a working actor for 15 years before his breakthrough, usually in supporting roles and often billed as 'Mykel T Williamson', a reworking of his name chosen so people would pronounce it properly. Ironically, when he changed it back, people remembered it for the first time. Williamson's first professional job in show business was at age 13, dancing as a member of The Lockers troupe on "Soul Train" (along with Fred Berry, later a star of "What's Happening"). Williamson scored a rare feat when he was cast in an episode of "Starsky & Hutch" after his very first professional acting audition. He subsequently spent the 1980s bouncing from one short-lived series to another, from PBS' "Righteous Apples", to NBC's "Bay City Blues", to CBS' "Cover-Up", to NBC's "The Bronx Zoo", before hooking on as a recurring character on NBC's "Midnight Caller", and as the station manager "replacement" for Gary Sandy in the syndicated revival of "WKRP in Cincinnati" (1991-1993). Soon after the demise of the sitcom, he was cast as the kindly social worker in "Free Willy" (1993). For "Forrest Gump", Williamson stuffed his lower lip to make it appear thicker and to make his speech slower. His death scene amidst the war zone of Vietnam brought tears to the audience and sent Williamson's stock rising in Hollywood. Yet, except for a small, almost cameo, as Winston, the handsome American in Paris for whom Alfre Woodard pines in "How to Make an American Quilt" and the sequel "Free Willy 2" (both 1995), Williamson found that despite an initial flurry of interest he was not being cast because too many powers-that-be in Hollywood thought he really had a drooping and decidedly unattractive lower lip. The lull was snapped away by Al Pacino who, impressed with Williamson's performance as Bubba, insisted he be cast in "Heat" (1995). It didn't hurt that Michael Mann, who directed "Heat," had also cast Williamson in a key role in the pilot of "Miami Vice" in 1984. Subsequently, he played a drunken boyfriend from hell in "Waiting to Exhale" (1995), a crook involved in a kidnapping in "Truth or Consequences, NM" (1997) and a diabetic prisoner on board "Con Air" (also 1997).