Victor Willis
Victor Willis was born in Dallas, Texas, United States on July 1st, 1951 and is the Pop Singer. At the age of 72, Victor Willis biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, and networth are available.
At 72 years old, Victor Willis physical status not available right now. We will update Victor Willis's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.
Victor Edward Willis (born July 1, 1951) is an American singer, songwriter, and actor.
He is best known as the founding member of Village People, as well as lead singer and co-songwriter for all of their most popular singles.
He posed as a cop or a naval officer in the group. Willis' son, who is a Baptist minister, learned to sing in his father's congregation.
He attended the prestigious Negro Ensemble Company in New York after studying acting and dancing.
He appeared in many musicals and plays, including the original Broadway production of The Wiz in 1976 and later, the Australian production. Willis had written and recorded several albums for independent labels in the mid-1970s, and was later introduced to French disco producer Jacques Morali.
Morali, the "young man with the big voice," approached Willis, "I had a dream that you sang lead vocals on my album, and it was so big."
Personal life
Willis suffered with opioids for many years after he left Village People and had multiple run-ins under the house. Following an arrest in 2006, he was given probation and was directed to therapy at the Betty Ford Clinic. Willis made his first public appearance in more than 25 years in 2007, saying, "The agony of heroin use is being lifted from my life." Now that the haze of drugs has faded, I'm thinking and seeing more clearly now than I have in years. I'm looking forward to living the second half of my life without using opioids.
Willis married Phylicia Ayers-Allen (now Phylicia Rashad), who lived during the time of The Wiz and later played Clair Huxtable on The Cosby Show in 1978. Josephine Superstar wrote the lyrics for her album. Willis married again on November 17, 2007; his wife Karen is a lawyer and an entertainment executive.
Career
Willis agreed to sing lead and background vocals under the guise of Village People, an at-that-point non-existent concept group. The album Village People was released in July 1977, including the hits "San Francisco (You've Got Me)" and "In Hollywood (Everybody is a Star)", and became a huge hit in the burgeoning disco market. After an offer from Dick Clark for the group to perform on American Bandstand, Morali and Willis were pressed to develop a "real" group around Willis to perform live. They did so by placing an ad in music trade papers for "macho" singers who "could also dance" and "must have a mustache".
Willis was soon writing songs produced by and co-written with Morali for the group and other artists, which met with success. The Village People quickly rose to the top of the charts with Willis at the helm, scoring numerous major hits such as "Macho Man", "Y.M.C.A.", "In the Navy", and "Go West".
In 1980, as preparations for a Village People feature film Can't Stop the Music were under way, Willis left the group. Although he does not appear in the movie, he wrote the lyrics for two of the film's songs, "Magic Night" and "Milkshake". Can't Stop the Music is listed among Hollywood's bigger movie flops. After Willis departed, Village People never had another hit. In an attempt to "recapture the magic", Morali convinced him to return to the group in 1982 for the album Fox on the Box. The album was released a year later in the United States as In the Street. In 1983, Willis left the group again.
In 2013, Willis appeared on the TV One series Unsung in their two-hour special retrospective on the disco era. On June 28, 2016, Willis appeared as a contestant on the show To Tell the Truth, and sang "Y.M.C.A." as the credits rolled.
After leaving Village People, Willis declined offers to record and consistently refused to perform any of his Village People hits. In 2010, he appeared at several Major League Baseball stadiums, performing The Star-Spangled Banner and leading the crowd for the traditional Y.M.C.A. 7th-inning stretch break.
In 1979, Willis recorded a solo album which remained unreleased for over 35 years. The album, Solo Man, was finally released in August 2015.
In 2017, Willis and Henri Belolo, Morali's business partner and co-owner of the group, reached an out-of-court settlement whereby Willis resumed his role as lead singer of Village People, and they resumed recording and touring internationally. In 2018, Willis announced via social media plans for upcoming Village People projects including a new studio album, a Christmas music video, and a re-issue of the group's 1979 concert originally released as the "live" portion of the album Live & Sleazy.