Aw. But what a good run, and what a great actor.
Made me wonder if Katherine Helmond is still alive. And yes, she is 88 years strong.
My favorite episode of ***Benson ***was the one in which his mother died.
“You gotta keep the faith!”
Zee Kitchen is closed for good this time. 
I thought Robert had died a couple years ago.
Glad to learn he continued to work and had several good years after his stroke.
Robert did a great job portraying Benson.
RIP
I’m not cleaning that…No way I’m cleaning that.
I saw him play the Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera on stage. This may be heresy but his dark performance as a tortured artist was by far better than Michael Crawford’s “Angel of Music” performance.
When I heard the news, my first thought was “Phantom.” He took over for Michael Crawford in the LA production, an extremely tough act to follow. And, as Saint Cad mentions above, he was excellent. I shall play the four track CD they released of his performance in his honbor.
Trivia time, When Robert took over the role of Phantom opposite Elizabeth Stack (daughter of Robert), the producers expected some letter about having a “black” Phantom playing a love interest opposite a “white” Christine. They got two.
Theatre people are so classy!
From what I remember, what controversy there was (and there was some) had more to do with casting someone that most people thought of as “a sitcom actor” in such a major dramatic part. I never got to see him in that role, but I can well imagine the strengths he would have brought to it.
I remember Guillaume from all three of his major TV projects–Soap, Benson, and Sports Night. I hadn’t thought about him in some time now, but whenever I had occasion to be reminded of him, it always brought back some fond memories.
Chester Tate (Robert Mandan) is still alive too, age 85. Sadly, Burt and Mary Campbell are both long gone.
I’d also like to note that he did great work as the voice of Dr. Eli Vance from Half-Life 2, one of the first video game characters I can remember with an actual personality.
God, yes, and when he came back on set after recovery? Brought down the damn house. I bet there wasn’t a dry eye on set.
I didn’t know about this. Take look at this video:
Holy shit, I’ve got goosebumps all over my whole body watching it. What power and presence. And that voice. There are some other videos on that page from the show.
Wow! What an incredible talent. Who knew?
Hell, I own both seasons of Sports Night and watch the entire thing from time to time* and I still tear up during his return episode (and the last episode, too).
*I have a thing for Aaron Sorkin: random episodes/story arcs of The West Wing are in fairly heavy rotation in my house, and every now and then I’ll re-watch all of Sports Night and/or Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. I can’t seem to muster the same love for The Newsroom, though. I barely got through that show when it first aired: every time I try to re-watch it, my annoyance with either the Maggie or MacKenzie character stops me after an episode or two.
I’ve not seen that. Loved him as Benson, though, and the best I’ve seen him was as the school administrator supporting Morgan Freeman in Lean on Me.
He was great on that, before and after his stroke. He had great screen chemistry with Felicity Huffman (Dana). The scene where he watches her try to get tickets to “The Lion King” the day of the show is one of my favorites. “What’d they say?” “Nothing yet, they’re still laughing…”