Montel Williams has accomplished a heck of a lot in his life and continues to be a force to be reckoned with in both the entertainment and health care industries. He doesn’t fear going against convention, fights for what he believes is right and is an incredibly intelligent man willing to debate issues that others wouldn’t ever touch. His live can be summed up using his favorite quote by Winston Churchill:

“We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.”

Montel Williams Early Years

Montel Williams was born in Baltimore, Maryland on July 3rd, 1956. He enlisted into the United States Marine Corps in 1974 and progressed into the United States Naval Academy, graduating with a degree in Engineering and International Security Affairs. He was awarded a number of honors during his 22 years of military service which include the Meritorious Service Medals (2), Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, Humanitarian Service Medals (2), Naval Achievement Medal, Navy Expeditionary Medals (2) and the Navy Commendation Medals (2). He had a distinguished career and retired as a Lieutenant Commander in the Navy Reserve.

Montel Williams Changes Television

Although he was known for his lack of hair among talk show hosts, he fought incredibly hard to garner the attention and loyal viewers that made him a household name. He began “The Montel Williams Show” in 1992 putting him head-to-head against heavy hitters such as Geraldo, Phil Donahue and the Goddess of talk show hosts, Oprah Winfrey. He successfully mixed the strengths of his competition and thrived. He has also appeared in a number of very popular television shows such as “Jag”, “All My Children”, “Wheel of Fortune”, produced a number of television series, directed and acted through a very broad spectrum of entertainment media. He changed the face of entertainment, as a result, both Montel Williams and “The Montel Williams Show” where nominated for “Outstanding Talk Show Host” by the Daytime Emmy Awards four times, winning them once.

Montel turning challenges into opportunities

Montel has had three wives through his career in an industry known to be extremely difficult on relationships and has four children. By far, the most difficult issue he has had to deal with is his personal bout with Multiple Sclerosis, being diagnosed with MS in 1999. That same year, he was honored with the PRISM Award and Inspiration Award by the Entertainment Industries Council for his incredible leadership and role model status within the entertainment industry. He has, ever since his MS diagnosis, faced this incredibly challenging disease head-on by spreading awareness about this auto-immune disease on country-wide tours, his talk show and creating “The Montel Williams MS Foundation” to help raise funds to fight this horrible disease. His tireless activities garnered “The Montel Williams Show” the “Beacon Award” by the New York State Psychological Association (NYSPA). He was also awarded the AFTRA Disability Awareness Award by News & Broadcasting in 2003. He is also a published author of several books including “Mountain, Get Out Of My Way”, “Life Lessons and Reflections”, A Dozen Ways to Sunday”, “The 21 Day Fitness Program for Changing Your Body and Changing Your Life” and “Climbing Higher” and helps bring influential pieces to life through “Mountain Movers Press”. Montel Williams is also a national spokesman for the “Partnership for Prescription Assistance (PPA)” which helps those who can least afford to be sick an affordable mechanism to get the drugs they need to remain healthy.

The Bottom Line

The doors of new opportunities in life are always opened by the keys of unforeseen challenge.

Buzvia: The Montel Williams MS Foundation, Montel Williams on Wikipedia, The Montel Williams Show

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 8th, 2008 at 12:20 am and is filed under diseases and conditions, famous people, motivation, success, wealth. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.