Photo: A&M Records / Public domain (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Paul Williams is the kind of artist you have heard far more than you realize. Writing the Carpenters' We've Only Just Begun alone earns a place in pop history, but his Academy Award and Grammy hardware show a craftsman who quietly outlasted flashier peers. I am drawn to the gap between the persona and the work: an impish, small-statured personality producing some of the tenderest melodies of the 1970s. His turn in Phantom of the Paradise proves he could act and score at once. For me, Williams embodies the songwriter's long game, where the music keeps living after the spotlight moves on. That endurance is the real talent.
Overview
Paul Hamilton Williams Jr. (born September 19, 1940) is an American songwriter and actor. He is known for writing and co-writing popular songs performed by a number of acts in the 1970s, including Three Dog Night's "An Old Fashioned Love Song" and "Out in the Country", Helen Reddy's "You and Me Against the World", Biff Rose's "Fill Your Heart", and the Carpenters' "We've Only Just Begun" and "Rainy Days and Mondays".…
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Paul Williams
- Name (Japanese)
- ポール・ウィリアムズ
- Reading
- ぽーる・うぃりあむず
- Born
- September 19, 1940 (age 85)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Virgo / Dragon
- Origin
- Omaha, Nebraska, United States
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- actor / screenwriter / composer / singer / film actor
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Woodrow Wilson Classical High School
- University
- University of California, Los Angeles
Awards & achievements
- star on Hollywood Walk of Fame
- 1977 Academy Award for Best Original Song
- 1986 ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards
- 1977 Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score
- 1976 Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song
- 1976 Grammy Award for Song of the Year
- 1980 Grammy Award for Best Children's Music Album
- 2012 Satellite Auteur Award
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
5. Works & records
| Category | Title | Role | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Notable work | We've Only Just Begun | — | |
| Notable work | Just an Old Fashioned Love Song | — | |
| Notable work | Phantom of the Paradise | — | |
| Notable work | Smokey and the Bandit | — |
6. Links
- Official sitehttps://www.paulwilliamsofficial.com/
- Xhttps://x.com/IMPaulWilliams
- Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%9D%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AB%E3%83%BB%E3%82%A6%E3%82%A3%E3%83%AA%E3%82%A2%E3%83%A0%E3%82%BA%20(%E3%82%B7%E3%83%B3%E3%82%AC%E3%83%BC%E3%82%BD%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B0%E3%83%A9%E3%82%A4%E3%82%BF%E3%83%BC)
Actor — see all → · Screenwriter — see all → · More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.