.
William Daniels
(K.I.T.T.)
Nikki Katt was the voice of the
powerful talking car K.I.T.T. and was
born in Brooklyn and was a versatile
character actor and was often cast in
arrogant, authoritative or WASPish roles,
currently serves the Industry in the
tireless roll of President of the Screen Actors
Guild.
He's started tap dancing, began
performing as a song and dance team on
radio, children's shows, in clubs and at
benefits.
During his teens he was hired by
the New York company started stage
managing and then moved up to acting in
Broadway productions doing understudy
roles.
Following military service as a
staff sergeant with Armed Forces Radio,
he turned to mentor, Howard Lindsey, the
author of Life with Father, to discuss
his future. Lindsey suggested enrolling
in a college with an outstanding drama
department. Mr. Daniels chose
Northwestern University, where he met and
married Bonnie Bartlett, also a drama
major and then graduated in 1949.
His first important break came
when Tennessee Williams chose him to play
"Brick" in the national company
tour of "Cat on A Hot Tin
Roof". He continued in the role for
33 weeks and his career was launched and
performed in many other Broadway shows.
He did many off-Broadway shows as well
like "The Iceman Cometh"
(Replacing George Segal), "The Zoo
Story" (Which he won an award) and
many more.
He started becoming a household
name in stage shows and then appeared in
several television shows like
"Rockford Files",
"McMillan and Wife",
"Quincy", "McCloud"
and "Toma".
He won the Emmy Award two years
in a row, playing "Dr. Craig"
on St. Elsewhere, while simultaneously
playing the voice of "KITT,"
the car on the popular series, Knight
Rider. In addition to having a successful
career in television, he has also
appeared in several films including:
"The Graduate",
"Reds", "Parallax
View"," "Her Alibi",
"A Thousand Clowns", "The
President's Analyst" and "Two
For The Road and Blind Date".
He has also appeared in many
television movies such as: "The
Adams Chronicles", "Blind
Ambition", "A Case For
Rape" and "Making The Case For
Murder (The Howard Beach Case)".
He recently played "Mr.
Feeny" on the ABC sitcom "Boy
Meets World" (1993-2000) and in 1999
he was elected to a two-year term as
President of Screen Actors Guild. He and
his wife, actress Bonnie Bartlett, divide
their time between Studio City and Santa
Barbara, California. They have two sons,
Michael, 35 and Robert, 33 and two
granddaughters, Shaina and Eliza.
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