William Paterson

Biography

A graduate of Brown University, he appeared for at least part of every season for 20 years at The Cleveland Play House, taking time out for live television, films, and four national tours with his own one-man shows. He joined the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco (where Annette Bening, Denzel Washington, Benjamin Bratt, Harry Hamlin, and 'Winnona Ryder' all schooled) in 1967 to play James Tyrone in Long Day's Journey Into Night. He has appeared in major roles in A.C.T. productions of You Can't Take It With You, Jumpers, The Matchmaker (U.S.S.R. tour), All the Way Home (Japan tour), Buried Child, The Gin Game, Painting Churches, The Doctor's Dilema, Saint Joan, Saturday-Sunday-Monday, The Cocktail Hour, Pygmalion, Home, Gaslight (Drama Logue Award), Mrs. Warren's Profession, and Mary Stuart. For Saturday-Sunday-Monday and Pygmalion he received Bay Area Theatre Critic's Circle Awards for best supporting actor, and for the The Cocktail Hour her earned the same award for best principle performance. He appeared with Marc Singer and Fredi Olster in A.C.T.'s _The Taming of the Shrew_ directed by William Ball both on stage and filmed for PBS' Great Performances: Theater in America in 1976. Paterson played Scrooge in the original A.C.T. production of A Christmas Carol and performed the role for 14 seasons. He served for nine years on the San Francisco Arts Commission and for two years as a trustee of The American Conservatory Theater Foundation. He resides in San Francisco.