Pop songwriter, singer, and actor Paul Williams was born September 19, 1940, in Omaha, Nebraska; following his father's 1953 death, he was sent to live with relatives in Long Beach, California, there fostering his growing interests in music and drama by appearing in a series of high-school plays and talent shows. After graduation, the famously diminutive Williams briefly worked as an apprentice jockey before pursuing acting professionally, relocating to Albuquerque, New Mexico to appear in community theater productions of A Thousand Clowns and A Midsummer Night's Dream; he returned to Long Beach in 1960 to join the repertory company Studio 58, earning sufficiently strong critical notice to go to Hollywood. Despite landing a major role in the 1965 satire The Loved One, Williams' early movie career was largely frustrating, and after several years of bit parts he accepted an offer from standup Mort Sahl to write comedy sketch material for local television.