He had no choice
Born with the gift of a golden voice
And 27 angels
From the Great Beyond.

He seems really intelligent and sincere. Drugs and alcohol are really the fucking pits, aren't they?

He's got golden tonsils, that's for sure. I mean, fer shur.

Looks like all those sonorous voice-overs (more>than Freeman, anyone?) are going to be cheaper from now on, doesn't it? Being the all-purpose Voice of God must have been nice but there comes a time when another rumbling deity comes along. . .

a local basketball team as an announcer as well as a voice over agent in New York.

Nice one internet!

And now his story's made it onto the BBC news site.

In a somewhat roundabout manner, this rather randomly brought to mind a documentary shown on Channel 4(?) a few years back featuring a chap who was once a darling of the advertising industry in the 60s (friend to Bailey etc.) but who had either had a profound nervous breakdown or succumbed to mental illness by some other route, and been institutionalised. The documentary followed his life post-discharge, and the attempts of various friends to assist him. Can't remember the title - someone out there is bound to know?

Leaving aside the question of whether it constituted a degree of "exploitation" of the subject (although I understand that he had 'agreed' to it), it was an apparently sincere essay on the subject. Part of the profound effect of it seem to come from the disjunction between his very well-bred middle class accent (and demeanour) and the fact that the manner in which he was actually experiencing life was, for the most part, utterly fractured. Not wishing to draw a facetitious comparison, but it came across at times like something from Chris Morris's 'Bluejam' - with archetypal 'middle class commentator' presenting a rational narrative to irrational events...

There was a particularly heartbreaking scene where he had found an old record player and started playing (and randomly discarding) some old records - ending up in a sea of vinyl. What made it even more disturbing was the fact that he died under mysterious circumstances during filming (but most likely suicide) - no uplifting final act, no trite life lessons, just a harsh final cut...

...sorry to bring such a downer on, but it was powerful stuff as I recall, and without wishing to get drawn into questions of class/accent, it did provide a smart riposte (of sorts) to certain assumption, shall we say, about articulacy & control.

...here endeth this heavy bummer of a post.

Daily Mail tried to piss on his chips earlier by dredging through his "sordid" past, but very quickly changed their headline to give it a more heartwarming spin when it proved too mean-spirited for even their readership.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1344671/Homeless-man-Ted-William...

He is a self-confessed recovering crack addict and alcoholic, and his behaviour is wholly consistent with anyone who would find themselves in such desperate circumstances, so I find none of it surprising.

If I was homeless I would probably stuff anything up my nose and steal and pimp whatever and whoever I could to distract myself from the banality and deadness of it all.

I can see the mawkish "Only In America" line being played for all it's worth here, and even though I feel like I'm being manipulated, I don't care. This story IS incredibly moving, and his appearance on The CBS Early Show had me in tears.

I just hope that the Cavaliers treat this sensitive and volatile man with the respect he deserves and don't just pimp HIM before throwing him back where they found him.