A man of all mediums, this veteran, Manhattan-born character actor was named after his great-grandfather, Lincolnesque Congressman William Windom. Born in 1923, the son of Paul Windom, an architect, and the former Isobel Wells Peckham, Bill attended Williams College and the University of Kentucky, among others, before serving in the Army during WWII. After the war, he studied at both Fordham and Columbia universities in New York City before settling on an acting career. Trained at the American Repertory Theatre to writer Patricia Veronica Tunder at the time of his death of congestive heart failure at age 88. A chess, tennis and sailing enthusiast, he is survived by four children: Rachel, Heather Juliet, Hope and Rebel Russell, as well as four grandchildren. He died at his home in Woodacre, California, on August 16, 2012.
Five-year-old William Windom was a pupil of kindergarten teacher Margaret Hamilton until she threw him out for rambunctious behavior.
His great grandfather, politician William Windom (1827-1891), served in both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate as a Republican for Minnesota; later became Secretary of the Treasury under James Garfield and Benjamin Harrison. His own character of Glen Morley in "The Farmers Daughter" was also a congressman from Minnesota.
Chess enthusiast.
During World War II, he served as a paratrooper in the U.S. Army with B Company 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division and fought in Operation Market Garden (the invasion of Holland) and the Battle of the Bulge.
Married five times, he has four children: Rachel, Heather Juliet, Hope and Rebel Russell, the youngest.
Windom bought a small island for $1.00 in Windom, Minnesota, so named for his great-grandfather, a one-time member of Lincolns Kitchen Cabinet. The islands a wildlife refuge.
Hes owned seven different small boats since 1953 and won numerous sailing trophies.
Has been profiled in Chess Life magazine twice (he is a tournament player with a penchant for unusual openings; one of his positions had turned up in a Chess Life problem column before the magazine interviewed him). The second time, in 1988, he appeared with his friend, Claude Akins (who had been on "Murder, She Wrote" as "Captain Ethan Craig" the season before Windom became "Dr. Seth Hazlitt") playing a game in Windoms back yard. During an interview for the article, Windom said that he planned to have a large Rook (the castle-shaped piece) made of Nubian marble and cap it with a compass rose, "and one day my ashes will be buried underneath it".
Was a tournament-level chess player.
Can be heard promoting his show "the farmers daughter" shortly before ABC news preempted programming with the news of President John F. Kennedys assassination on Nov 22, 1963.
There are two essentials, two and two only, to have any performance in,the world in any medium. One is the audience and two is the author. The,rest fills in. The two essentials are someone to have the idea to say,it and someone to hear it. Without either one of those two, you have,nothing.
