William Daniels plays the one man at the party who will not be charmed: the clipped voice, the straight back, the refusal to laugh along. Used well, as in The Graduate and St. Elsewhere, that stiffness turns out to be hiding a great deal.
Fi1m perspective
In A Thousand Clowns (1965), Herb Gardner's play is built so that everyone in it will eventually be won over by Murray, the man who refuses to grow up. Everyone except Albert Amundsen. William Daniels plays the child welfare officer with his papers squared and his voice pitched flat and exact, and lets the charm break over him. He had played the part on Broadway before Fred Coe filmed it, and it shows in how little he does. Every other actor is having a good time; Daniels is doing his job.
That is the Daniels part, and he spent sixty years refining it. In The Graduate (1967) he is Mr. Braddock, Ben's father, and Mike Nichols shoots the parents' party close and slightly too bright so that every face is goodwill with something behind it. Daniels's face is the most convincing of them, because he is not playing a villain. He is a man who has done well and has filled his house with friends to prove it. He carried John Adams from the Broadway musical 1776 in 1969 to its film in 1972, and returned to the family in The Adams Chronicles (1976); the history books suited that clipped, certain voice.
Television is where most people met him. From 1982 he was Dr Mark Craig on St. Elsewhere while, in the same years, voicing KITT the talking car on Knight Rider, which tells you how recognisable the voice was: a surgeon and a machine, and the same precision serving both. He has said that when he was offered Craig, "the scripts were excellent but there was only an occasional appearance by Dr. Craig". The part grew. We found that he, Norman Lloyd and Ed Begley Jr made the hospital worth following even when its staff were hard to like, because there was enough intelligence in the playing to make bad behaviour interesting without asking us to excuse it. He has acted opposite his wife, Bonnie Bartlett, more than once. Then Boy Meets World (1993–2000) made him George Feeny, the strict schoolteacher who is on the children's side, and fixed him for a generation as the man at the front of the class.
We will admit that in A Thousand Clowns we ended up on his side. The film wants us to adore Murray and find Albert a bore, and somewhere past the hour, watching Daniels sit through yet another routine without a flicker, we realised we agreed with him. We do not think Gardner meant that to happen.
The limit is real, and it has been noticed. Cast him as anything but the stern father or the exacting professional and he has nowhere to put the stiffness that is his best tool. But he chose his rooms well. Start with The Graduate, where the part is small and the whole method is on show in the first ten minutes: a man standing in his own house, surrounded by friends, and his son wanting to be anywhere else.
Biography
William Daniels is an American actor. He was born on 31 March 1927 in Brooklyn, New York.
He is known for his role as Dr. Mark Craig on the medical drama series St. Elsewhere (1982–1988), for which he won two Primetime Emmy Awards. Other notable television roles include George Feeny on Boy Meets World (1993–2000) and the voice of KITT on Knight Rider (1982–1986). His film credits include Mr. Braddock in The Graduate (1967).
Daniels served as president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1999 to 2001. He is married to actress Bonnie Bartlett, with whom he appeared on St. Elsewhere.
