TLDR: William Windom was born in Manhattan on September 28, 1923, served as a paratrooper in World War II, and made his Broadway debut in 1947. He won the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for My World and Welcome to It in 1970.
His guest performance as Commodore Matt Decker in the Star Trek episode “The Doomsday Machine” is considered one of the finest in the franchise’s history. He played Dr. Seth Hazlitt on Murder, She Wrote for eleven seasons and approximately 55 episodes.
He died of congestive heart failure on August 16, 2012, at his home in Woodacre, California, at age 88.
Angela Lansbury fought to have Dr. Seth Hazlitt written into Murder, She Wrote. The original recurring male character, Captain Ethan Cragg, was a rough-edged fisherman and handyman whom she felt was being positioned as a surrogate husband with a patronizing attitude toward Jessica Fletcher.
She described fighting the network “tooth and nail” to have him removed. She won. The producers replaced Cragg with an educated country physician who could match Jessica’s intellectual level.
They cast William Windom. The character ran for eleven seasons.
Paratrooper, Shakespearean, Emmy Winner
William Windom was born on September 28, 1923, in Manhattan, to an architect father and a mother descended from William Windom, the Minnesota congressman who served as Secretary of the Treasury under Presidents Garfield and Harrison. He attended Williams College before World War II interrupted his education.
He enlisted in the Army and served as a paratrooper in the European Theater, earning a Combat Infantryman Badge, a Bronze Star, a Belgian Croix de Guerre, and the Dutch Order of Wilhelm.
After the armistice he enrolled at Biarritz American University in France, an institution the Army set up for soldiers awaiting transport home. He signed up for drama courses assuming they would be easy.
He was cast as Richard III. That changed everything.
He made his Broadway debut in 1947 with the American Repertory Theatre, appearing in Shakespeare, Ibsen, and Shaw before transitioning to live television anthologies in the early 1950s.
His film debut came in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), where he played Horace Gilmer, the smirking prosecuting attorney cross-examining Tom Robinson opposite Gregory Peck.
He was good enough at playing morally compromised establishment figures that the role led directly to more of the same for the next decade.
In 1969 he was cast as John Monroe, a whimsical magazine writer who escapes suburban anxiety through Thurber-esque fantasy sequences, in the NBC sitcom My World and Welcome to It. The show was ambitious, blending live action with 2D animation.
It was cancelled after one season due to low ratings. At the 1970 Emmy Awards it won Outstanding Comedy Series and Windom won Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. The Television Academy gave awards to a show almost nobody had watched.
The Doomsday Machine and a Performance Trekkers Still Talk About
In 1967 Windom guest-starred in the Star Trek episode “The Doomsday Machine” as Commodore Matt Decker, a starship commander whose entire crew of over 400 officers had been killed when he beamed them to a planet for safety, only for an alien weapon to consume that planet.
The episode opens with Kirk and McCoy finding Decker alone on his crippled ship in a state of complete psychological collapse.
Windom’s performance is a study in a decorated man unraveling under survivor’s guilt and obsession. His breakdown during Kirk’s interrogation, his seizure of command of the Enterprise from Spock, and his suicidal run into the alien device are all delivered with a specificity that elevated what could have been a routine guest spot into something genuinely haunting.
Decades later, franchise historians still cite the episode as one of the finest hours of the original series, largely because of him.
In 2004 he reprised the role in a fan-produced continuation called Star Trek: New Voyages. He noted that he had never been a follower of the franchise either before or after his original appearance. He had simply done the job.
Dr. Hazlitt and the Granddaughter of Louis B. Mayer
Windom was married five times. His third wife was Barbara Goetz Clare, the granddaughter of MGM founder Louis B. Mayer.
That marriage ended in 1968.
He eventually married Patricia Fehrle Tunder in 1975 after meeting her on a film set. They were together for 37 years, until his death.
He joined Murder, She Wrote as Dr. Seth Hazlitt in Season 2, a direct result of Lansbury’s insistence on a character who was Jessica’s intellectual equal rather than her protector.
He and Lansbury played chess together on screen and sparred with the dry warmth of two people who had known each other long enough to be completely honest. He briefly left the show in 1990 to play Frank Buckman in the NBC television adaptation of Parenthood, a Ron Howard project.
It was cancelled after twelve episodes and he returned to Cabot Cove.
He appeared in approximately 55 episodes across eleven seasons, making him one of the most consistently present supporting figures in the show’s history. He died of congestive heart failure at his home in Woodacre, California, on August 16, 2012. He was 88. His wife Patricia confirmed the details.
For more on the show he spent eleven seasons on, see the Murder, She Wrote cast hub.
Who did William Windom play on Murder She Wrote?
William Windom played Dr. Seth Hazlitt, the Cabot Cove physician and closest friend of Jessica Fletcher, across approximately 55 episodes spanning eleven seasons from 1985 to 1996. The character was introduced at Angela Lansbury’s insistence after she fought to have the original recurring male character removed because he lacked intellectual parity with Jessica Fletcher. Windom’s Dr. Hazlitt served as Jessica’s intellectual equal, chess partner, and confidant throughout the show’s run.
What Emmy did William Windom win?
William Windom won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Comedy Series in 1970 for his role as John Monroe in My World and Welcome to It on NBC. The show was a one-season comedy blending live action with animation, loosely based on the works of James Thurber. It was cancelled due to low ratings but won Outstanding Comedy Series at the same Emmy ceremony where Windom won his award.
What did William Windom play in Star Trek?
William Windom played Commodore Matt Decker in the Star Trek original series episode The Doomsday Machine (1967). Decker is a starship commander whose entire crew was killed when an alien weapon destroyed the planet where he had beamed them for safety. Windom’s portrayal of a decorated officer unraveling under survivor’s guilt is considered one of the finest guest performances in the franchise’s history. He reprised the role in the fan production Star Trek: New Voyages in 2004.
How did William Windom die?
William Windom died of congestive heart failure at his home in Woodacre, California, on August 16, 2012, at age 88. His wife Patricia confirmed the cause of death. He had been married to Patricia for 37 years at the time of his death. He was survived by four children: Rachel, Heather, Hope, and Rebel.
