The Late Treat Williams Gets a Bittersweet Swan Song in ‘Feud’
Certain actors instantly light up the screen, no matter how big or small their roles. Treat Williams was one such performer, making his final role as legendary CBS executive William “Bill” S. Paley in Feud: Capote vs. The Swans all the more poignant—particularly in an episode where his character contemplates the mortality of a loved one.
Among larger-than-life figures like Truman Capote (Tom Hollander) and the coterie of glamorous and infinitely watchable women orbiting the famous author, Williams, in a supporting role, is an irresistible grounding force pulling focus whenever he appears.
It is Bill’s dirty laundry—quite literally—that Truman spills on the pages of Esquire in “La Côte Basque, 1965,” taking information shared to him in confidence by Babe Paley (Naomi Watts) about her husband as titillating inspiration. Breaching the trust of his most favored “swan,” Babe, and taking on the powerful couple spells the end for the famed author’s high society access.