Stars of 'Boy Meets World' and 'St. Elsewhere,' both in their 90s, due at Comic Con
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Hollywood is not a town known for fostering long marriages, but “Boy Meets World” and “St. Elsewhere” actors William (Bill) Daniels and Bonnie Bartlett Daniels will celebrate 72 years of matrimony next month. Both are in their 90s, but they remain active and will spend this weekend posing for photos and signing autographs at Motor City Comic Con.
Bill, best known to modern audiences as stern yet inspiring educator Mr. Feeny on 1990s ABC sitcom “Boy Meets World,” and Bonnie played a married couple on "Boy" and again on hit 1980s medical drama “St. Elsewhere.” Both won Emmys for the latter in 1986, but in a recent interview with the Free Press, they recalled barely making it to the ceremony that night to collect their awards.
“I wasn’t looking forward to it,” said Bill, 96. “They send a limo for you, but when I got in the limousine, he got a block and a half away and his motor stopped. So I thought, ‘OK, that’s it.’ I walked home, turned on the TV to watch (John) McEnroe play tennis — I was a big fan of his — and took off the monkey suit I was in."
“And left me in the car, dressed to the hilt,” quipped Bonnie, 94.
“Well, you couldn’t walk,” Bill countered.
“Billy!” she comically chided. “He left me and walked, and two old ladies stopped and said: ‘We know who you are. Can we give you a lift?’ So they dropped him off home. The meantime, I’m saying to the limo guy, ‘What are you going to do?’ He called another limo. I got in the limo, I went back to the house — here he is watching television. I said, ‘Billy, you get dressed again!’ He said, ‘What?’ I said, ‘We are going to this thing!’ ”
The pair arrived late to the event, bustling and excusing their way past attendees to their seats in the middle of a row, only for Bill’s win to be announced the moment they sat down. Bill again unseated the majority of the row to make it back to the aisle and then to the stage, where he told the story of the limo breaking down.
“But I got a few laughs!” he recalled with a chuckle.
Bonnie said laughter is what her husband enjoys most.
“Bill loves that. Anything he does, he says, 'You've got to look for the humor. Even if it’s serious, you look for the humor.' ”
Humor is a big part of what has kept their marriage alive for seven decades. Bonnie describes it as “hardly a fairy tale” in her new memoir, "Middle of the Rainbow: How a Wife, Mother and Two-Time Emmy Winner Managed to Find Herself."
“How complicated a marriage can be — let’s not fudge about this,” she said. “We’ve been married forever. I met Bill when I was 18, and now I’m 94. So that’s a long time, and there have been many difficult years.”
In the shockingly candid book, she details the “very painful” open marriage they had for several years, as well as the loss of a child, recollections of stars such as Marilyn Monroe and Gene Wilder, and harrowing accounts of sexual assaults by her father and a fellow actor.
“It was before anybody would even have believed me,” she said of the encounters. (Even her therapist at the time blamed her for the serial attacks by her colleague.)
“But now, they do. They believe you. We have new rules. You can say to a man: ‘No, don’t do that.’ ‘Take your hands off me.’ ‘You can’t touch me.’ As Mr. Feeny says, ‘Believe in yourself, try, do good.’ You know, his advice is very good for survivors of assault.”
In 2017, Bill published his own autobiography, “There I Go Again: How I Came to Be Mr. Feeny, John Adams, Dr. Craig, KITT, and Many Others,” and will perform alongside Bonnie in an upcoming film production of Shakespeare’s “Richard III.” He also maintains an Instagram account with nearly 200,000 follower:s @mrbilldaniels. Bonnie recently held a recurring role on AMC hit series “Better Call Saul,” sharing scenes with star Bob Odenkirk. The two also remain in high demand on the convention circuit. Last month, they reunited with several “Boy Meets World” cast members for Bill’s 96th birthday dinner, and in September, most of the cast will convene at Tampa’s '90s Con in honor of the show’s 30th anniversary.
In the meantime, Bonnie is looking forward to getting a helping of her favorite Detroit treat: Sanders sweets.
“I used to go to Detroit all the time,” she explained, “because my uncle had a precision instrument factory. Made a lot of money during the Second World War. Sanders was one of the places that we went to because it had such great hot fudge.
“Sanders in Detroit has the best hot fudge in the world!”
Bonnie's memoir, "Middle of the Rainbow," can be purchased at www.bonniesmiddleoftherainbow.com.
Contact Free Press arts and culture reporter Duante Beddingfield at dbeddingfield@freepress.com.
Motor City Comic Con
Noon-7 p.m. Fri., 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Sat., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sun.
Suburban Collection Showplace
46100 Grand River Ave., Novi
Adults: $30 & up (plus fee), children 6-12: $10 & up (plus fee)
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Motor City Comic Con welcomes 90-something stars of beloved TV shows
