William Katt
Encyclopedia
William Theodore Katt is an American
film and television actor
, best known as the star of The Greatest American Hero
. He is also known for playing Tommy Ross
, the ill-fated prom date of Carrie White
in the film version of Carrie and Paul Drake Jr. in the Perry Mason TV movies. His mother is Barbara Hale
, who played Della Street in the television series Perry Mason.
, the son of actor Bill Williams
(real name Hermann Katt) and actress Barbara Hale
. He grew up in the San Fernando Valley and began acting while a teenager.
before pursuing a career as a musician
. He then started acting, appearing in summer stock
and in small television roles. His earliest film credits include the role of a jock, Tommy Ross
, in Brian De Palma
's 1976 horror film adaptation Carrie, and the role of Sundance Kid
in the 1979 film Butch and Sundance: The Early Days
. The same year he also appeared as Barlow in the John Milius
surf film Big Wednesday
opposite Jan-Michael Vincent
and Gary Busey
. His mother in that film was his real-life mother, Barbara Hale. This role made him so well known in the surfing community
that in 2004 he presented one of the Association of Surfing Professionals
awards at their annual World championship tour ceremony, to wild applause from the crowd of professional surfers.
In December 1975 Katt auditioned for the part of Luke Skywalker
in 1977's science fiction blockbuster Star Wars
, and footage of his audition has been featured in many Star Wars documentaries. He was seriously considered for the role, which instead went to Mark Hamill
, and Katt instead starred that year in First Love
.
In 1981, Katt was cast as the title role in a filmed version of the Broadway musical comedy Pippin
, which received mixed reviews. He won his best remembered role that year, however, as Ralph Hinkley, a mild-mannered schoolteacher given a superpowered suit by aliens on the television
series The Greatest American Hero
, a role he played until the show was canceled in 1983.
After The Greatest American Hero, Katt starred in Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend
(1985), about explorers searching for apatosaurs in Africa; the cult
horror/comedy film House (1986) (reprising his role for the third sequel, House IV
, in 1992), and played the recurring role of detective Paul Drake Jr. in the periodic Perry Mason
TV movies of the late eighties. These co-starred his mother, Barbara Hale, who resumed her Della Street
role from the original show, and Katt collaborated on some of the later scripts. Katt starred in the 1989 TV series Top of the Hill
, and acted in the short-lived 1991 series Good Sports
.
Katt continues to appear on television and in supporting film
roles, and has also branched out into voice acting. He appeared in an episode of House
in 2006. In recent years, he has returned to genre work, with appearances in Andromeda
and Justice League
and roles in the award-winning film Gamers
(2006), The Man from Earth
(2007) and Alien vs Hunter (2007).
Katt briefly appeared in Heroes
season 3, "The Butterfly Effect
", as a nosy reporter investigating Ali Larter's character. He portrayed Jack Matheson in the thriller film Mirrors 2. In 2010, during season 6, Katt starred as C.J. Payne's musician birth father in the episode, "Who's Your Daddy, Now?", on the Tyler Perry comedy, House of Payne.
Katt has also written a Greatest American Hero comic book
, and contributed to that series' Facebook
page.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
film and television actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, best known as the star of The Greatest American Hero
The Greatest American Hero
The Greatest American Hero is an American comedy-drama television series that aired for three seasons from 1981 to 1983 on ABC. Created by producer Stephen J. Cannell, it premiered as a two-hour movie pilot on March 18, 1981...
. He is also known for playing Tommy Ross
Tommy Ross
Thomas "Tommy" Everett Ross is one of the main characters in the horror novel Carrie by Stephen King.In both of the two film adaptations, as in the book, Tommy is asked by his girlfriend Sue Snell to take Carrie White to the prom instead of her. Susan feels guilty for taunting Carrie in the showers...
, the ill-fated prom date of Carrie White
Carrie White
Carietta "Carrie" N. White is a fictional character created by Stephen King who has the power of telekinesis.In every adaptation and portrayal of Carrie, she is shown as an outcast, loathed and taunted by her fellow students and constantly scolded by her mother, Margaret White, an abusive, mentally...
in the film version of Carrie and Paul Drake Jr. in the Perry Mason TV movies. His mother is Barbara Hale
Barbara Hale
Barbara Hale is an American actress best known for her role as legal secretary Della Street on more than 250 episodes of the long-running Perry Mason television series and later reprising the role in dozens of made-for-TV movies....
, who played Della Street in the television series Perry Mason.
Early life
Katt was born in Los Angeles, CaliforniaLos Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, the son of actor Bill Williams
Bill Williams (actor)
Bill Williams was an American television and film actor. He is best known for his starring role in the early 1950 television show The Adventures of Kit Carson.-Career:...
(real name Hermann Katt) and actress Barbara Hale
Barbara Hale
Barbara Hale is an American actress best known for her role as legal secretary Della Street on more than 250 episodes of the long-running Perry Mason television series and later reprising the role in dozens of made-for-TV movies....
. He grew up in the San Fernando Valley and began acting while a teenager.
Career
Katt attended Orange Coast CollegeOrange Coast College
Orange Coast College is a community college in Orange County, California. It was founded in 1947, with its first classes opening in the fall of 1948. It provides two-year associate of art and science degrees, certificates of achievement, and lower-division classes transferable to other colleges...
before pursuing a career as a musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
. He then started acting, appearing in summer stock
Summer Stock
For the article about the theatre genre, see Summer stock theatre.Summer Stock is a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical made in 1950. The film was directed by Charles Walters and stars Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Eddie Bracken, Gloria DeHaven, Marjorie Main, and Phil Silvers...
and in small television roles. His earliest film credits include the role of a jock, Tommy Ross
Tommy Ross
Thomas "Tommy" Everett Ross is one of the main characters in the horror novel Carrie by Stephen King.In both of the two film adaptations, as in the book, Tommy is asked by his girlfriend Sue Snell to take Carrie White to the prom instead of her. Susan feels guilty for taunting Carrie in the showers...
, in Brian De Palma
Brian De Palma
Brian Russell De Palma is an American film director and writer. In a career spanning over 40 years, he is probably best known for his suspense and crime thriller films, including such box office successes as the horror film Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Scarface, The Untouchables, and Mission:...
's 1976 horror film adaptation Carrie, and the role of Sundance Kid
Harry Longabaugh
Harry Alonzo Longabaugh , better known as the Sundance Kid, was an outlaw and member of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch, in the American Old West. Longabaugh likely met Butch Cassidy after Parker was released from prison around 1896...
in the 1979 film Butch and Sundance: The Early Days
Butch and Sundance: The Early Days
Butch and Sundance: The Early Days is a 1979 Western film and prequel to the 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. It starred Tom Berenger as Butch Cassidy and William Katt as the Sundance Kid....
. The same year he also appeared as Barlow in the John Milius
John Milius
John Frederick Milius is an American screenwriter, director, and producer of motion pictures.-Early life:Milius was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Elizabeth and William Styx Milius, who was a shoe manufacturer. Milius attempted to join the Marine Corps in the late 1960s, but was rejected...
surf film Big Wednesday
Big Wednesday
Big Wednesday is an American coming of age film directed by John Milius. Milius co-wrote Big Wednesday with Denny Aaberg, and it is loosely based on their own experiences at Malibu and a short story Aaberg had published in a 1974 Surfer Magazine entitled "No Pants Mance." The picture stars...
opposite Jan-Michael Vincent
Jan-Michael Vincent
Jan-Michael Vincent is an American actor best known for his role as helicopter pilot Stringfellow Hawke on the 1980s U.S. television series Airwolf .-Early life:...
and Gary Busey
Gary Busey
William Gary Busey , best known as Gary Busey, is an American film and stage actor and artist. He has appeared in a large variety of films, as well as making regular appearances on Gunsmoke, Walker, Texas Ranger, Law & Order, and Entourage...
. His mother in that film was his real-life mother, Barbara Hale. This role made him so well known in the surfing community
Community
The term community has two distinct meanings:*a group of interacting people, possibly living in close proximity, and often refers to a group that shares some common values, and is attributed with social cohesion within a shared geographical location, generally in social units larger than a household...
that in 2004 he presented one of the Association of Surfing Professionals
Association of Surfing Professionals
The Association of Surfing Professionals is the governing body for professional surfers and is dedicated to showcasing the world’s best talent in a variety of progressive formats.- Predecessors to the ASP :...
awards at their annual World championship tour ceremony, to wild applause from the crowd of professional surfers.
In December 1975 Katt auditioned for the part of Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the original film trilogy of the Star Wars franchise, where he is portrayed by Mark Hamill. He is introduced in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, in which he is forced to leave home, and finds himself apprenticed to the Jedi master...
in 1977's science fiction blockbuster Star Wars
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, originally released as Star Wars, is a 1977 American epic space opera film, written and directed by George Lucas. It is the first of six films released in the Star Wars saga: two subsequent films complete the original trilogy, while a prequel trilogy completes the...
, and footage of his audition has been featured in many Star Wars documentaries. He was seriously considered for the role, which instead went to Mark Hamill
Mark Hamill
Mark Richard Hamill is an American actor, voice artist, producer, director, and writer, best known for his role as Luke Skywalker in the original trilogy of Star Wars. More recently, he has received acclaim for his voice work, in such roles as the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series, Firelord...
, and Katt instead starred that year in First Love
First Love (1977 film)
First Love is a 1977 romance film. It stars Susan Dey and William Katt and was directed by Joan Darling. The movie is based upon the story Sentimental Education by Harold Brodkey...
.
In 1981, Katt was cast as the title role in a filmed version of the Broadway musical comedy Pippin
Pippin (musical)
Pippin is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Roger O. Hirson. Bob Fosse, who directed the original Broadway production, also contributed to the libretto...
, which received mixed reviews. He won his best remembered role that year, however, as Ralph Hinkley, a mild-mannered schoolteacher given a superpowered suit by aliens on the television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
series The Greatest American Hero
The Greatest American Hero
The Greatest American Hero is an American comedy-drama television series that aired for three seasons from 1981 to 1983 on ABC. Created by producer Stephen J. Cannell, it premiered as a two-hour movie pilot on March 18, 1981...
, a role he played until the show was canceled in 1983.
After The Greatest American Hero, Katt starred in Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend
Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend
Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend is a 1985 American adventure fantasy film directed by Bill L. Norton and starring William Katt, Sean Young, Patrick McGoohan, and Julian Fellowes...
(1985), about explorers searching for apatosaurs in Africa; the cult
Cult
The word cult in current popular usage usually refers to a group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre. The word originally denoted a system of ritual practices...
horror/comedy film House (1986) (reprising his role for the third sequel, House IV
House IV
House IV, released in 1992, is the fourth and final film in the House series. The film sees the return of Roger Cobb, from the original House, but the film otherwise does not connect its storyline to the first film; however, its overall tone is closer to the comedy/horror found in the first House...
, in 1992), and played the recurring role of detective Paul Drake Jr. in the periodic Perry Mason
Perry Mason
Perry Mason is a fictional character, a defense attorney who was the main character in works of detective fiction authored by Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason was featured in more than 80 novels and short stories, most of which had a plot involving his client's murder trial...
TV movies of the late eighties. These co-starred his mother, Barbara Hale, who resumed her Della Street
Della Street
Della Street was the fictional secretary of Perry Mason in the long-running series of novels, films, and radio and television programs featuring the fictional defense attorney created by Erle Stanley Gardner.-Description:...
role from the original show, and Katt collaborated on some of the later scripts. Katt starred in the 1989 TV series Top of the Hill
Top of the Hill
Top of the Hill is a short-lived political drama series aired by CBS as part of its 1989 fall lineup.-Synopsis:Top of the Hill starred William Katt as U.S...
, and acted in the short-lived 1991 series Good Sports
Good Sports
Good Sports is an American sitcom that aired on the CBS network in 1991, starring Farrah Fawcett and Ryan O'Neal.-Synopsis:The show features the two main characters, Bobby Tannen, a once-famous former football player gone to seed and Gayle Roberts, an ex-Miss America , as mismatched anchors on an...
.
Katt continues to appear on television and in supporting film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
roles, and has also branched out into voice acting. He appeared in an episode of House
House vs. God
"House vs. God" is the nineteenth episode of the second season of House, which premiered on the Fox network on April 25, 2006.-Plot:Boyd, a young faith healer, is giving a service in a church and "heals" a woman, allowing her to walk...
in 2006. In recent years, he has returned to genre work, with appearances in Andromeda
Andromeda (TV series)
Andromeda is a Canadian-American science fiction television series, based on unused material by the late Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, developed by Robert Hewitt Wolfe, and produced by Roddenberry's widow, Majel Barrett Roddenberry. It starred Kevin Sorbo as High Guard Captain Dylan Hunt...
and Justice League
Justice League (TV series)
Justice League is an American animated television series about a team of superheroes which ran from 2001 to 2004 on Cartoon Network. The show was produced by Warner Bros. Animation. It is based on the Justice League of America and associated comic book characters published by DC Comics...
and roles in the award-winning film Gamers
Gamers: The Movie
Gamers: The Movie is an independent 2006 mockumentary film written, directed and produced by Chris Folino. The film follows four friends who, saddled with "four of the worst jobs known to man", attempt to set the world record for playing Demons, Nymphs, and Dragons , a Dungeons & Dragons-like...
(2006), The Man from Earth
The Man from Earth
The Man from Earth is a 2007 science fiction film written by Jerome Bixby and directed by Richard Schenkman. The film stars David Lee Smith as John Oldman, the protagonist of the story. The screenplay for this movie was conceived by Jerome Bixby in the early 1960s and was completed on his death bed...
(2007) and Alien vs Hunter (2007).
Katt briefly appeared in Heroes
Heroes (TV series)
Heroes is an American science fiction television drama series created by Tim Kring that appeared on NBC for four seasons from September 25, 2006 through February 8, 2010. The series tells the stories of ordinary people who discover superhuman abilities, and how these abilities take effect in the...
season 3, "The Butterfly Effect
The Butterfly Effect (Heroes)
"The Butterfly Effect" is the second episode of the third season of the NBC science fiction drama series Heroes and thirty-sixth episode overall. It was written by series creator/executive producer Tim Kring and directed by Greg Beeman...
", as a nosy reporter investigating Ali Larter's character. He portrayed Jack Matheson in the thriller film Mirrors 2. In 2010, during season 6, Katt starred as C.J. Payne's musician birth father in the episode, "Who's Your Daddy, Now?", on the Tyler Perry comedy, House of Payne.
Katt has also written a Greatest American Hero comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
, and contributed to that series' Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
page.
Personal life
Katt married Deborah Kahane in 1979 and they had two sons, Chandler and Emerson. They divorced in 1986. He married Danielle Hirsch in 1993 and has a daughter with her, Dakota, as well as a stepson, Andrew. [William Katt Interview! 3-21-11]http://www.littleredwagonfilms.com/rap/?paged=2External links
- Audio interview with William Katt at comic book site comiXology