Montel Williams

Williams at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival

Montel Brian Anthony Williams (born July 3, 1956 in Baltimore , Maryland ) is an American talk show and radio presenter and actor. He was best known in the United States for his longtime talk show, The Montel Williams Show . Most recently, he has appeared on the Partnership for Prescription Assistance (PPA) initiative , which aims to enable poor families to get more expensive medicines. Since he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1999 , he has also campaigned for the MS Foundation.

Life

youth

Williams was born in Baltimore, Maryland and raised in Glen Burnie . His father, Herman Williams Jr., was a firefighter who became the first African American chief of the Baltimore fire department in 1992 . Montel Williams has five siblings. He attended high school in Linthicum , where he was elected head boy for his classes . After high school, he volunteered for the United States Marine Corps in 1974 . He attended boot camp in Parris Island , South Carolina , where he was promoted to platoon leader. After basic training, he went to the Desert Warfare Training Center in Twentynine Palms , California . There he enjoyed the reputation of his superiors and he was proposed for the Naval Academy Preparatory School in Newport , Rhode Island . There he completed a one-year course and then began on July 6, 1976 training at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis . He was released as a corporal of the Marines and began as a midshipman in the Navy. He studied Mandarin in Annapolis and graduated in 1980 with a degree in general engineering .

Williams then wanted to return to the Marines as an officer, but he and 99 other soldiers were treated with the wrong vaccine , which caused massive reactions. Williams lost sight in his left eye and was hospitalized for two and a half weeks. His eye recovered a little, but he couldn't switch to the marines after that. Instead, he became a reconnaissance officer in the Navy.

He headed a unit on Guam for a year and a half and in 1982 moved to the Defense Language Institute in Monterey , California, where he learned Russian for a year . He was then transferred to Fort Meade , Maryland, where he worked for the National Security Agency . He then served three years on a submarine as a lieutenant in the Naval Security Fleet Support Division . At that time he discovered his talent for speaking, which was to benefit his later television career. He gave public speeches to school children in Kansas City and then began working as a motivational speaker . His speeches took him across the United States and eventually, after a 22-year career in the military, he left the Army as Lieutenant Commander with the Navy Achievement Medal , Meritorious Service Medal and Navy Commendation Medal .

The Montel Williams Show

Williams began working for television and in 1991 hosted The Montel Williams Show , named after him and produced by CBS Paramount Television . In 1996 Williams received a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show Host. Williams was nominated again in 2002 and his show in 2001 and 2002. Audiences peaked in 1996 and 1997, with the show averaging 4.4 points in the Nielsen rating .

On January 30, 2008, industry magazine Variety announced that CBS TV Distribution was ceasing production of the show because major buyer Fox was canceling the show on a number of its stations. The last episode aired on May 16, 2008.

Radio and advertising

On April 6, 2009, Williams began hosting the daily radio show Montel Across America on Air America Media . The show ran until January 21, 2010.

As of May 2009, Williams hosted a series of infomercials for the Living Well Healthmaster kitchen appliance, entitled Living Well with Montel . The commercial was based on his old talk show . The "talk guests" talked about their health problems and the "Healthmaster" turned out to be the solution again and again. In addition to this device, he also advertised pressure cookers on this show . He also starred in a series of TV commercials for “Money Mutual,” a type of credit card intended for Internet traffic. As of June 2010, Williams promoted LifeLock, a security company that protects against fraud.

On November 20, 2010, Williams appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show with Phil Donahue , Geraldo Rivera , Ricki Lake and Sally Jessy Raphael .

play

Montel Williams with television crew on the USS Howard

Williams occasionally guest stars on television series. He played a lieutenant in the Navy SEALs in three episodes of the series JAG - On behalf of honor . He was also the producer and star of the Matt Waters television series , which aired on CBS in 1996. There he played an ex-Navy Seal who worked as a high school teacher. In 1997 he played a supporting role in the film Red Zone with Dolph Lundgren .

As a judge, he appeared in the 2002 soap opera All My Children on ABC . In 2003 a guest role followed in which he played himself. He also had guest roles in A Breath of Heaven and Springfield Story . In 2004 he hosted American Candidate , a political reality show on Showtime .

As a producer, he was responsible for the documentary 4CHOSEN: The Documentary , which was about a shooting in New Jersey and the subsequent trial in 1998.

social commitment

After Williams was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1999, he became involved in helping other sufferers. In 2000 he founded the MS Foundation, a non-profit organization that primarily invests in research and education. Williams also publicly announced that he was using medical marijuana for his pain . This made him a member and mouthpiece of the legalization movement .

Williams is also the national spokesperson for the Partnership for Prescription Assistance (PPA), a program that helps vulnerable people get free or discounted drugs. On November 30, 2007, Williams was in Savannah , Georgia and threatened a 17-year-old high school reporter who reported for the Savannah Morning News . She had asked him whether the program would not reduce the profits of the pharmaceutical industry by providing free or discounted drugs and thereby prevent the development of new drugs. Excited about this question, he had the videotape destroyed. When he later met the student in his hotel, he threatened to "blow her up". When he was approached by other reporters about the incident, he was also indignant. He later apologized for his wrongdoing. In 2010, William became the spokesperson for the Poker Training Network website.

Williams competed in the World Series of Poker in 2007 but lost on day two. He wanted to donate the money to families in need who were suffering from the aftermath of the Iraq war . More recently, he has also been involved in The Fisher House Foundation, which provides housing for injured soldiers.

Private life

Williams has two daughters with his first wife Rochele See. From 1992 to 2000 he was married to the dancer Grace Morley. The couple have a daughter and a son. In July 2006 he met Tara Fowler, whom he married in 2007.

Works

• with Daniel Paisner: Mountain, get out of my way. Life lessons and learned truths. Warner Books, New York NY 1996, ISBN 0-446-51907-3 .
• Life lessons and reflections. Mountain Movers Press, Carlsbad CA 2000, ISBN 1-58825-001-6 .
• with Daniel Paisner: A dozen ways to Sunday. Stories of hope and courage. Mountain Movers Press, Carlsbad CA 2000, ISBN 1-58825-005-9 .
• with Wini Linguvic: BodyChange. The 21-day fitness program for changing your body - and changing your life! Mountain Movers Press, Carlsbad CA 2000, ISBN 1-58825-004-0 .
• with Lawrence Grobel: Climbing higher. New American Library, New York NY 2004, ISBN 0-451-21159-6 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The Official Montel Williams Site ( Memento of the original from December 12, 1998 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ^ Montel Williams' Support for Sailors Recognized with Superior Public Service Award. Navy.mil, March 20, 2008, accessed May 8, 2012 . 
3. ↑ Carolyn Ramsay: The New Host on the Talk-Show Block: Television: Montel Williams, a former Navy man and lecturer to teens, wants to dethrone Oprah and Phil. His 13-week trial run begins today. , The Los Angeles Times . July 8, 1991. Retrieved December 7, 2010. 
4. ^ Variety - Montel Williams calls it quits. Variety , accessed May 8, 2012 . 
5. ↑ Montel Williams - Bonus Videos ( Memento of the original from May 11, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
6. ^ Montel Williams to Host Radio Show. Yahoo News , March 13, 2009; accessed May 8, 2012 . 
7. ^ Air America flies away for good. The AV Club, January 21, 2010, accessed May 8, 2012 . 
8. ↑ Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
9. ^ Montel Williams - Biography
10. ↑ Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
11. ↑ from Oprah.com (November 8, 2010)
12. ^ Howard Rosenberg: Next Up on Montel: Host Turns Actor , The Los Angeles Times . January 3, 1996. Retrieved December 7, 2010. 
13. ↑ 4CHOSEN: The Documentary. Internet Movie Database , accessed May 22, 2015 . 
14. ↑ David L. Lander: Montel, There's More to the MS Battle , The Los Angeles Times . December 11, 2000. Retrieved December 7, 2010. 
15. ^ Montel Williams diagnosed with multiple sclerosis . In: CNN . 
16. ^ The Montel Williams MS Foundation. (No longer available online.) Montelms.org, archived from the original on July 26, 2011 ; Retrieved July 22, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
17. ↑ Montel Williams uses Medical Marijuana for Multiple Sclerosis . Blog.dopies.com. January 8, 2004. Retrieved July 22, 2011.
18. ↑ Ann Marimow: Montel Williams lends support to Maryland's medical marijuana effort , The Washington Post . January 20, 2011. Retrieved January 24, 2011. 
19. ^ Allison Kugel : Montel Williams on MS, Legalizing Marijuana and 15 Years of Making Television History . PR.com. January 23, 2006. Retrieved January 24, 2011.
20. ↑ Montel Threatens to 'Blow Up' Teen Reporter MSNBC.com, December 2, 2007
21. ↑ Montel threatens to 'blow up' teen reporter - Entertainment - Celebrities - TODAY.com . MSNBC. Retrieved July 22, 2011.
22. ↑ Small Business Opportunity | Make money with poker . Pokertrainingnetwork.com. Retrieved July 22, 2011.
23. ↑ Las Vegas Now. Retrieved May 13, 2008 . 
24. ↑ Interview on Fisher House Foundation from December 25, 2011
25. ^ IMDB Biography for Montel Williams
26. ^ Montel Williams Marries - Weddings, Montel Williams: People.com

Web links

Commons : Montel Williams  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Montell Williams in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Montel Media Group
• Living Well with Montel
• Montel Williams MS Foundation