Paul Williams

Although he maintained an active career as an actor from the 1960s onward, Paul Williams earned greater acclaim as a chart-topping songwriter and lyricist for movies, TV themes, commercials, and a wide range of recording artists. Born in Omaha, Nebraska, on September 19, 1940, he launched his career in Los Angeles, where he starred in the 1965 cult film The Loved One and began writing songs with collaborators like Biff Rose and Kenneth Ascher. By the mid-'70s, Williams had co-written pop hits like Three Dog Night's "An Old Fashioned Love Song," Helen Reddy's easy listening chart-topper "You and Me Against the World," and the Carpenters' Number 1 smash "We've Only Just Begun." While his string of solo albums during the 1970s failed to make a significant dent on the American charts, his songwriting career continued to skyrocket throughout the decade, with highlights including the Grammy-nominated "Evergreen" (which served as the theme song to 1976 film A Star Is Born) and the Oscar-nominated "Rainbow Connection" (sung by Kermit the Frog in 1979's The Muppet Movie). Alcohol and substance abuse briefly derailed his career during the 1980s, but a newly-sober Williams resumed his prolific pace during the '90s and early 21st century, co-writing hits for artists like Diamond Rio (who scored a Top 10 country single with "You're Gone" in 1998) and Daft Punk (who solicited his help as a lyricist and vocalist on the group's Grammy-winning album Random Access Memories in 2013). He also revived his solo career, releasing I'm Going Back There Someday in 2005.