Interview for the Binghamton University Alumni Newsletter.

From Hoop Hopes to Screen Dreams Victor Williams, BA '92

When Victor Williams was a young boy growing up in Brooklyn, he never dreamed about becoming a professional actor. Instead, he dreamed about playing basketball for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, just like the great Michael Jordan.

Things didn't work out as planned; they worked out better. Instead of becoming a basketball standout, the Binghamton University alumnus has become a TV standout, with a regular role in the long-running CBS sitcom King of Queens. The prime-time show has gained in the ratings every year and is now in both its sixth season on CBS and a run in syndication.

"I felt excited about going to my theater classes. Being on stage was where I felt I belonged."

On the show, Williams has earned kudos for his portrayal of Deacon Palmer, a delivery truck driver who's the best friend of the lead character, Doug Heffernan, played by Kevin James. A few admirers have even likened Williams' Palmer to Art Carney's Ed Norton character in the classic The Honeymooners program of the 1950s.

A modest guy, Williams doesn't buy such flattering comparisons, calling them "a bit lofty." But, after more than five years of working on the show and sweating through series and contract renewals, he's finally beginning to believe he might have some job security in television. "It's such an unsure business," he said. "This is the first year that I've allowed myself to enjoy its [the show's] success."

Playing it straight

The 38-year-old actor, who graduated from Binghamton with a theater degree, has plenty of other acting credits. Besides starring in King of Queens, he's appeared in such dramatic programs as ER, Law & Order, NYPD Blue and The Practice. He has also appeared in such films as The Preacher's Wife, Cop Land and Me and Mrs. Jones, and done voiceovers for Gatorade's national TV advertising campaign.

But it's the beer-drinking, sports-loving, truck-driving Deacon Palmer who has put Williams on the map in Hollywood. To this day, he still can't believe that a simple blue-collar sitcom few thought would last more than a season or two would prove to be his big break.

"Comedy was never my strength," he said. "I was the least likely to wind up on a sitcom. But I am sort of the straight guy, the set-up man."

Williams' character has his comic moments, too. For example, in his favorite episode, Palmer and his wife, Kelly, go off on a romantic weekend with Heffernan and his wife, Carrie. While Doug and Carrie grope with their insecurities about being away together in one bedroom, they learn that Deacon and Kelly are groping in a different way next door. Through the thin walls dividing the two rooms, the Heffernans hear their friends' favorite lovemaking music, Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On," play constantly throughout the night. "I bask in the glow of Deacon being a sexual machine," Williams said, chuckling.

A lark becomes a dream come true

Unlike many professionals, Williams didn't spend his youth performing in school and community shows. His first theater experience didn't come until his senior year at Midwood High School in Flatbush, when a good friend convinced him to take an English class that involved acting.

"I stumbled upon it," he said. "I did a scene with her and loved it."

Williams then headed off to Binghamton. When he found out that he wasn't talented enough to realize his basketball ambitions, he chucked his hoop dreams and set his sights on political science and preparing for law school. As a lark, he decided to take a few acting classes, too.

But, after three years, Williams realized that he had taken more acting than political science courses. He also realized that he was scoring higher grades in theater than in his major.

"I felt excited about going to my theater classes," he said. "Being on stage was where I felt I belonged.

Williams' theater professors also urged him on. In particular, two professors -- Richard Cuyler, now associate professor emeritus, and Don Boros, associate professor -- advised him to give acting a shot. He switched his major, taking extra theater classes and starring in several plays, including his favorite, Lanford Wilson's The Rimers of Eldritch.

"It's great to follow your passion," he said. "But you also need someone [else] who's good at what you do and tells you you're good."

After graduating from Binghamton, Williams earned a master of fine arts in acting from New York University and turned professional. Three years later, he won the Deacon Palmer part for the King of Queens pilot. With the show's creators seeing Palmer as just a guest star, Williams shot the pilot and went back to New York, thinking he was done. Then he got a call that CBS had picked up the show and the producers wanted him back as a cast member.

"You always wait for the break to come," he said. "You expect it to be such a big event. But it was a trickle -- a pilot, then a show, then a lot of people who thought it wouldn't succeed." Now that the show has succeeded beyond his wildest dreams, Williams is running into greater demands on his time. In addition to learning his lines and rehearsing Monday through Thursday and then spending 12 hours rehearsing and shooting each episode on Friday, he's getting called on to do lots of publicity events, photo shoots and interviews this season. Not that he's really complaining. "It's not as bad as people want to make it out," he said. Although "it's time consuming, it's a lot of fun for me."

-- Alan Breznick '79

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