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How ‘Abbott Elementary’ Changed a 72-Year-Old Actor’s Life Since His Failed ‘Friends’ Audition

William Stanford Davis, who once tried and failed to land a part on ‘Friends,' finally found fame playing beloved janitor Mr. Johnson: “He’s a three-dimensional character.”

In the season three finale of the Emmy-winning series, the janitor and Quinta Brunson ’s Janine Teagues have a short but serious talk about pursuing life and living with regrets. Davis has appeared in a number of TV shows and films — from Ally McBeal to Ray Donovan — and he moved to Los Angeles in his 30s to fully pursue acting, landing his first role on The Bold and the Beautiful, on which he, funnily enough, played a janitor. In high school, I got a chance to be in a program called Upward Bound, and I saw the Negro Ensemble Company, and I had never seen that many Black people onstage in my life.

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