William Daniels Biography

William David Daniels (born March 31, 1927) is an American actor and former president of the Screen Actors Guild (1999 to 2001). He is known for his performance as Dustin Hoffman's father in The Graduate (1967), as Howard in Two for the Road, as John Adams in 1776, as Carter Nash in Captain Nice, as Mr. George Feeny in ABC's Boy Meets World, as the voice of KITT in Knight Rider, and as Dr. Mark Craig in St. Elsewhere, for which he won two Emmy Awards.

Early life

William Daniels was born in Brooklyn, New York to Irene and David Daniels, although he has spoken with a Boston accent in many of his roles. His father was a builder. He graduated from Northwestern University in 1949, where he was a member of Sigma Nu fraternity. He has been married to actress and fellow Emmy Award-winner Bonnie Bartlett since June 30, 1951; the couple have two children.

Career

William Daniels began his career as a member of the singing Daniels family in Brooklyn, New York. He made his television debut as part of a variety act (along with other members of his family) in 1943, on NBC, then a single station in New York. He made his Broadway debut in 1945 in Life With Father, and remained a busy Broadway actor for decades afterwards. His Broadway credits include roles in 1776, A Thousand Clowns, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever and A Little Night Music. He earned an Obie Award for The Zoo Story (1960).

Daniels' motion picture debut was as a school principal in the 1963 anti-war drama Ladybug Ladybug. In 1965, he reprised his Broadway role as a child welfare worker in the screen version of A Thousand Clowns. In 1967 he starred in The Graduate with Dustin Hoffman, and Anne Bancroft. In 1969, Daniels starred as John Adams in the Broadway musical 1776; he also appeared in the film version in 1972. Two years later, he co-starred with Larry Hagman, Linda Blair and Mark Hamill in Richard Donner's telefilm Sarah T. - Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic.

Daniels' first network television appearance came in 1952 when he portrayed the young John Quincy Adams, eldest son of John and Abigail Adams in the Hallmark Hall of Fame drama A Woman for the Ages. In 1976, he reprised the role as the middle-aged and elder John Quincy Adams in the acclaimed PBS miniseries The Adams Chronicles (George Grizzard played John Adams). He also starred in the short-lived series Captain Nice as police chemist Carter Nash, albeit telling an interviewer in TV Guide he hated the role.

He appeared as acid-tongued (but well-meaning) Dr. Mark Craig in St. Elsewhere from 1982 to 1988, for which he won two Emmy awards. Almost simultaneously, he provided the voice of KITT in Knight Rider from 1982 to 1986. Daniels said in 1982, "My duties on Knight Rider are very simple. I do it in about an hour and a half. I've never met the cast. I haven't even met the producer." Daniels requested that he not receive on screen credit for the role.

He reprised the voice-only role of KITT in 1991 for the television movie Knight Rider 2000, again in the movie The Benchwarmers, yet again in AT&T and GE commercials about talking machines, and twice in The Simpsons as well as at the Comedy Central Roast of his co-star David Hasselhoff.

Daniels then portrayed teacher (later principal) George Feeny at John Adams High School in Boy Meets World from 1993 to 2000. Daniels also starred in the 1967 superhero sitcom Captain Nice, and was a regular on the 1970s TV series Freebie and the Bean and The Nancy Walker Show. A familiar character actor, he has appeared as a guest star on numerous TV comedies and dramas, including Soap, The Rockford Files, Quincy, M.E., and many others.

In 2012, Daniels appeared in the 9th season of Grey's Anatomy as Dr. Craig Thomas, an unlikely mentor to the character of Dr. Cristina Yang played by actress Sandra Oh. His character, Dr. Thomas, died in the operating room while performing a procedure to repair a heart defect midway through the season, which forced Yang to move back to Seattle.

It has been announced that he has agreed to reprise his role as George Feeny in Girl Meets World, the upcoming spin off to Boy Meets World. There is no word on whether this will be a one-time part for the new pilot or a recurring role.

Awards/honors

• Refused the 1969 Tony Award nomination for Featured Actor in a Musical in 1776 due to his insistence that the part of John Adams was a leading role rather than supporting.

• In 1986, both Daniels and his wife Bonnie Bartlett, who also played his fictional wife on St. Elsewhere and Boy Meets World, won Emmy Awards on the same night, becoming the first married couple to accomplish the feat since Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne in 1965. Lunt and Fontanne were the first to win Emmy Awards for a film, and Bartlett and Daniels were the first couple to win for a television series.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1952	A Woman for the Ages	John Quincy Adams	TV Movie
1963	Ladybug Ladybug	Mr. Calkins
1965	A Thousand Clowns	Albert Amundson
1967	Two for the Road	Howard Manchester
1967	The Graduate	Mr. Braddock
1967	The President's Analyst	Wynn Quantrill
1969	Marlowe	Mr. Crowell
1972	1776	John Adams
1973	Murdock's Gang	Roger Bates	TV Movie
1973	The Fabulous Doctor Fable	Elliot Borden	TV Movie
1974	A Case of Rape	Leonard Alexander	TV Movie
1974	The Parallax View	Austin Tucker
1975	Sarah T. - Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic	Matt Hodges	TV Movie
1975	One of Our Own	Dr. Moresby	TV Movie
1976	Francis Gary Powers: The True Story of the U-2 Spy Incident	Bissell	TV Movie
1976	That Was the Year That Was - 1976	Sketch Actor	TV Movie
1977	Black Sunday	Pugh
1977	Oh, God!	George Summers
1977	Killer on Board	Marshall Snowden	TV Movie
1978	The One and Only	Mr. Crawford
1978	The Bastard	Samuel Adams	TV Movie
1978	Big Bob Johnson and His Fantastic Speed Circus	Lawrence Stepwell III	TV Movie
1978	Sergeant Matlovich vs. the U.S. Air Force	Father Veller	TV Movie
1979	The Chinese Typewriter	Devlin	TV Movie
1979	The Rebels	John Adams	TV Movie
1979	Sunburn	Crawford
1980	City in Fear	Freeman Stirbling	TV Movie
1980	The Blue Lagoon	Arthur Lestrange
1980	Father Damien: The Leper Priest	Bishop Koeckemann	TV Movie
1981	All Night Long	Richard H. Copleston
1981	The Million Dollar Face	Henry Burns	TV Movie
1981	Reds	Julius Gerber
1982	Rehearsal for Murder	Walter Lamb	TV Movie
1982	Rooster	Dr. DeVega	TV Movie
1982	Drop-Out Father	Draper Wright	TV Movie
1987	Blind Date	Judge Harold Bedford
1987	The Little Match Girl	Haywood Dutton	TV Movie
1989	Her Alibi	Sam
1989	Howard Beach: Making a Case for Murder	Slaney	TV Movie
1990	On Thin Ice: The Tai Babilonia Story	John Nicks
1991	Knight Rider 2000	KITT	Voice
1992	Back to the Streets of San Francisco	Judge Julius Burns	TV Movie
1994	Magic Kid 2	Manny
1996	The Lottery	Reverend Hutchinson	TV Movie
2006	The Benchwarmers	KITT	Voice
2007	Blades of Glory	Commissioner Ebbers

Television

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1956	Robert Montgomery Presents	Donald Kemper	Episode: "Three Men From Tomorrow"
1956 1960 1961	Armstrong Circle Theatre	Leonard Gregory	Episode: "Five Who Shook the Mighty" Episode: "Separate Parents" Episode: "The Spy Next Door"
1959	Brenner	Larry Dyer	Episode: "Man in the Middle"
1961 1962	Naked City	Herbert Grafton Harry Culverin	Episode: "A Kettle of Precious Fish" Episode: "Idyllis of a Running Back"
1962 1964	The Defenders	Malloy Mike Herman	Episode: "The Locked Room" Episode: "A Voice Loud and Clear"
1963	East Side/West Side	Principal Costigan	Episode: "I Before E Except After C"
1963 1965	The Doctors and the Nurses	Vernon Kane Buddy	Episode: "Field of Battle" Episode: "A Couple of Dozen Tiny Pills"
1965	For the People	Fred Rice	Episode: "Any Benevolent Purpose"
1966	T.H.E. Cat	Tony Webb	Episode: "The Ring of Anasis"
1967	Captain Nice	Carter Nash / Captain Nice
1968	The Good Guys	Arnold Schreck	Episode: "Let 'em Eat Rolls"
1968	The Ghost & Mrs. Muir	Blair Thompson	Episode: "Mr. Perfect"
1969	Judd, for the Defense	Harry Stratton	Episode: "Epitaph on a Computer Card"
1972	Cannon	Dale Corey	Episode: "Hear No Evil"
1973	Love, American Style	Alan	Segment: "Love and the Old Lover"
1973	Ironside	Stillwald, the Bank Manager	Episode: "All Honorable Men"
1973 1976	McCloud	Clayton Gills Fred Pearson	Episode: "Butch Cassidy Rides Again" Episode: "The Day New York Turned Blue"
1974	Kolchak: The Night Stalker	Police Lt. Jack Matteo	Episode: "The Vampire"
1975	Insight	Mike Madden	Episode: "Hunger Knows My Name"
1975	Barbary Coast	Boyle	Episode: "Irish Luck"
1975	The Bob Newhart Show	Edgar T. Vickers Jr.	Episode: "Fathers and Sons and Mothers"
1976	The Adams Chronicles	John Quincy Adams (age 50-81)
1976	McMillan & Wife	Commander Campbell	Episode: "Point of Law"
1976	The Rockford Files	Thomas Caine Gary Bevins	Episode: The Italian Bird Fiasco Episode: So Help Me God
1976-1977	The Nancy Walker Show	Lt. Commander Kenneth Kitteridge
1976 1979 1980	Quincy, M.E.	Paul Reardon Charlie Trusdale Dr. Charlie Volmer	Episode: "A Star is Dead" Episode: "Dark Angel" Episode: "Last Rights"
1977	The Incredible Hulk	Dr. John Bonifant	Episode: "Death in the Family"
1978	Soap	Heinrich Himmel	Season 1, Episode 16
1978	Family	Dr. Taylor	Episode: "Counterpoint"
1978	Grandpa Goes to Washington	Gov. Bronx	Episode: "Pilot"
1978	Greatest Heroes of the Bible	Chasrubal	Episode: "Joshua and the Battle of Jericho"
1979	Blind Ambition	G. Gordon Liddy
1980	The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo	Dr. Walter Taylor	Episode: "Who's the Sexiest Girl in the World"
1980	Galactica 1980	Norman Blore	Episodes: The Night the Cylons Landed Part 1 & 2
1980-1981	Freebie and the Bean	District Attorney Walter W. Cruikshank	4 episodes
1981	Trapper John, M.D.	Dr. Slater	Episode: "Second Sight"
1981	Private Benjamin	Teddy	Episode: "Bye, Bye Benjamin"
1982	Hart to Hart	Simon Richardson	Episode: "Hartless Hobby"
1982-1986	Knight Rider	KITT	Voice
1982-1987	St. Elsewhere	Dr. Mark Craig
1986	Faerie Tale Theatre	Narrator	Episode: "The Princess Who Had Never Laughed"
1991	The General Motors Playwright Theatre	Detective Lieutenant Fine	Episode: "Clara"
1993	Nurses	Mr. Kaplan	Episode: "Family Outing"
1993-2000	Boy Meets World	George Feeny
1996 2003	Touched by an Angel	Whit Russell George	Episode: "Birthmarks" Episode: "And a Nightingale Song"
1998 2004	The Simpsons	KITT	Episode: "The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace" (Voice) Episode: "Milhouse Doesn't Live Here Anymore" (Voice)
2000	Star Trek: Voyager	Hospital Ship 4-2, Allocation Alpha	Voice. Episode: "Critical Care"
2002	Scrubs	Dr. Douglas	Episode: "My Sacrificial Clam"
2003	Lost at Home	Arthur	Episode: "Our Town"
2003	The Lyon's Den	Judge Franklin Campbell	Episode: "Blood"
2004	The King of Queens	Philip Waldecott	Episode: "Icky Shuffle"
2004	Kim Possible	Robot Pilot	Voice. Episode "Ron Millionaire"
2005	The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy	Scythe 2.0	Voice. Episode: "Runaway Pants/Scythe 2.0"
2006	The Closer	Commissioner Andrew Schmidt	Episodes: "Serving the King Part 1 & 2"
2008	Boston Legal	Judge Milton Brody	Episode: "Smoke Signals"
2012	Paulilu Mixtape	Dr. Vanderhoof	Episode: "Ghost Tits"
2012	Grey's Anatomy	Dr. Craig Thomas	5 episodes
2014	Girl Meets World	George Feeny	Pre-production