Andy Williams Bio
Howard Andrew Williams was an American singer. Andy Williams recorded 43 albums in his career, of which 15 have been gold-certified and three platinum-certified. He was also nominated for six Grammy Awards.
Williams hosted The Andy Williams Show, a television variety show, from 1962 to 1971, and numerous TV specials. The Andy Williams Show won three Emmy awards. The Moon River Theatre in Branson, Missouri is named after the song for which he is best known—Johnny Mercer and Henry Mancini’s “Moon River”. He sold more than 100 million records worldwide, including more than 10 million certified units in the United States. Williams was active in the music industry for 74 years.
Andy Williams Age
Andy Williams was born in Wall Lake, Iowa, to Florence and Jay Emerson Williams, who worked in insurance and the post office. While living in Cheviot, Ohio, Williams attended Western Hills High School in Cincinnati, Ohio. He finished high school at University High School, in West Los Angeles, because of his family’s move to California.
Andy Williams Died of bladder cancer on 25th September 2012. At the time of his death, Andy Williams was 84 years old.
Andy Williams Wife|Children
Williams met French-born Claudine Longet when he came to her aid on a Las Vegas road. She was a dancer at the time at the Folies Bergère. They married on December 15, 1961, and over the next eight years, they had three children, Noelle, Christian, and Robert.
After separating in 1970, Williams and Longet divorced in 1975, but they remained friends. In March 1976, Longet was charged with fatally shooting her boyfriend, alpine ski racer Spider Sabich, in Aspen.
Williams played a public role in the subsequent events, escorting her to and from the courtroom, testifying to her character at the trial and providing legal assistance. Longet claimed the shooting was accidental, and eventually received 30 days in jail. From the team’s induction in 1968 until 1987, Andy Williams also had partial ownership of the Phoenix Suns, a National Basketball Association team.
On May 3, 1991, Williams married Debbie Meyer, whom he met through a mutual friend. They made their homes at Branson, Missouri and La Quinta, California, where he was known as the “honorary mayor”.
Williams was a noted collector of modern art and his homes have been featured in Architectural Digest. Williams’ birthplace in Iowa is a tourist attraction and is open most of the year.
Andy Williams Brother
Williams had three older brothers, Bob, Don, and Dick Williams. His first performance was in a children’s choir at the local Presbyterian church. He and his brothers formed the Williams Brothers quartet in late 1938, and they performed on radio in the Midwest, first at WHO, in Des Moines, Iowa, and later at WLS, in Chicago, and WLW, in Cincinnati.
Moving to Los Angeles in 1943, the Williams Brothers sang with Bing Crosby on his 1944 hit record Swinging on a Star. They appeared in four musical films: Janie which was in 1944, Kansas City Kitty in 1944, Something in the Wind in 1947 and Ladies’ Man in 1947.
A persistent myth is that as a teenager the future singing star dubbed the singing for Lauren Bacall in the 1944 feature film To Have and Have Not. According to authoritative sources, including Howard Hawks and Bacall herself, this was not true. Williams and some female singers were tested to dub for Bacall, because of fears that she lacked the necessary vocal skills.
But those fears were overshadowed by the desire to have Bacall do her own singing despite her imperfect vocal talent. This myth is refuted in Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide in the entry for this film.
In 1945 the Williams Brothers were signed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to appear in Anchors Aweigh and Ziegfeld Follies but, before they went before the cameras, the oldest brother, Bob, was drafted into military service and the group’s contract was canceled.
Kay Thompson, a former radio star who was now head of the vocal department at MGM, had a nose for talent and hired the remaining three Williams brothers to sing in her large choir on many soundtracks for MGM films, including The Harvey Girls (1946). When Bob completed his military service, Kay hired all four brothers to sing on the soundtrack to Good News in 1947.
By then, Thompson was tired of working behind the scenes at MGM so, with the four Williams boys as her backup singers and dancers, she formed a nightclub act, Kay Thompson and the Williams Brothers. They made their debut in Las Vegas in 1947 and became an overnight sensation. Within a year, they were the highest-paid nightclub act in the world, breaking records wherever they appeared.
Williams revealed in his memoir, Moon River and Me, that he and Thompson became romantically involved while on tour, despite the age difference he was 19 and she was 38. The act broke up in 1949 but reunited for another hugely successful tour from the fall of 1951 through the summer of 1953. After that, the four brothers went their separate ways. A complete itinerary of both tours is listed on the Kay Thompson biography website.
Andy Williams Albums
» The Andy William Christmas Album
» Love Story
» Andy William’s Dear Heart
» Love, Andy
» Under Paris Skies
» Two Time Winners
» Alone Again
» The Shape OF wATER
» The Wonderful World Of Andy Williams
» I Don’t Remember Ever Growing Up
» Get Together with Andy Williams
» The New Andy Williams Christmas Album
» Moon River: The Very Best of Andy Williams
» Andy Williams Greatest Hits
» The Very Best of Andy Williams
» Andy Williams
» The Essential Andy Williams
» The Great Songs from ” My Fair Lady” and Other Broadway Hits
» Pure Crooners
» The 70s 100 Hits
» Ultimate 70s
» Bad Boys Greatest Hits, Volume 1
» Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Total Body Workout
Andy Williams Death
In a surprise appearance at his theater in November 2011, Williams announced that he had been diagnosed with bladder cancer. After chemotherapy treatment in Houston, Texas, he and his wife moved to a rented home in Malibu, California, in order to be closer to cancer specialists in the Los Angeles area.
On September 25, 2012, Williams died of bladder cancer at the age of 84 at his home in Branson, Missouri. Williams was cremated and his ashes were sprinkled into the artificial waterway at his theater in Branson. The memorial service for Williams was held a month later.