William’s acting career began in 1972 at the The Theatre Guild of Webster Groves—where his dad had acted in the mid-60s—in a performance of South Pacific, in which he had a horrible case of stage fright, refusing to sing and choosing instead to dance behind the curtain. Twenty years later, after a six-year stint in the Marines and other distractions, he moved back to St. Louis from California and performed in a student-directed one-act festival at the University of Missouri-St Louis. He then returned to The Theatre Guild of Webster Groves to get his picture on the wall with his father, playing Clive in Alan Ayckbourn’s Season Greetings.
After receiving a Bachelor of Science degree from Saint Louis University, William began his acting career in earnest. He spent six years with the Orthwein Theatre Company (along with Dave and Milt), appearing in several shows, including The Grapes of Wrath, Our Town, ER, Emergency Room and Harvey; directing Cantrell (chosen as one of the year’s best by the Riverfront Times) and Kafka’s Metamorphoses.
Over the past 15 years he has appeared in countless St. Louis Shakespeare productions, including: Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Lysistrata, Othello, Comedy of Errors, Titus Andronicus, Cymbeline, School for Wives, As You Like It, Romeo and Juliet, Richard III, The Winter’s Tale, Metamorphoses, Troilus and Cressida and most recently played Octavius Caesar in Antony and Cleopatra.
William has appeared with many other St. Louis companies as well, including The Classic Theater Company, River City Players, Magic Smoking Monkey, Midnight Productions, the Goldenrod Showboat, the International Hemmingway Festival, HotHouse Theatre, and the American Ballet Theatre’s run of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet at the Fox Theatre. He was seen in Muddy Waters Theatre Company’s last season, which featured the plays of Sam Shepard, playing Bradley in Buried Child and Martin in Fool for Love.
In addition to founding St. Louis Actors’ Studio, William is developing The Gaslight Theater in historic Gaslight Square, serves on the board of St. Louis Shakespeare, Professional Theatre Arts Council (Kevin Kline Awards) and The Prison Performing Arts. William also owns and operates The Eleven, Inc., a marketing communications firm in Gaslight Square.
