Well after the publication of this story, it came to light that Tom Willett was found guilty of three counts of an “infamous crime against nature” in Nevada in the mid-1970s. He was given three life sentences. Those sentences were suspended and Willett was instead placed on probation. He discussed the conviction in a since-deleted YouTube video, and did not respond to a request for comment from the Scene in May 2023. See the details from Willett’s case here.
A quick scroll through Tom Willett’s YouTube channel brings up hundreds and hundreds of clips exploring all manner of topics, from stock tips and original songs to video-effects tests, cooking instructions and fast-food reviews. One video is titled “Artificial Intelligence Good or Bad Idea?” Another is called “How to Eat Rice the Official Tutorial.”
Titled Featureman, Willett’s channel has garnered roughly 236,000 subscribers and 20.8 million total views since he kicked it off in April 2006, about a year after YouTube first launched. He’s an early adopter and a prolific poster, and thanks to reposts on Reddit and Twitter, the octogenarian has gained something of a cult following in recent years. An August 2016 video titled “Eating a Watermelon With My Clone” — a 14-minute clip in which Willett sits in his backyard munching on a halved melon alongside a second version of himself, created using some video-editing sorcery — has 3.7 million views.
Tom Willett
Willett has a charming, earnest presence and a pretty good singing voice, even if some of his recipes aren’t what you’d call conventional — particularly his pickle-and-pizza sandwich, which features a very special secret ingredient. (It’s raisins.) As it turns out, Willett — a Kentucky native who spent much of his life in Los Angeles and Las Vegas — moved to Nashville right around the time he created his YouTube channel, and Featureman is far from his first brush with fame.
“YouTube was so right for me,” says Willett, seated at the kitchen table in his Madison home. “Most people probably wouldn’t have given it much consideration back then when it was starting out, but I’d been on The Gong Show.”
Indeed, the 6-foot-4 performer was on the NBC amateur talent program more than a dozen times, delivering a variety of acts. He played characters including Baryshni-Cop (“a policeman who dances ballet”) and the Mind-Reading Hamster (a wise-cracking rodent with a voice similar to that of Mickey Mouse). You can watch his 1988 appearance as Rockin’ Abe via his YouTube channel.
But long before the Gong Show bits and the YouTube tutorials, Willett was a working actor and musician who made his living in piano bars and on movie sets. Raised in a small Kentucky town, Willett started shooting film when he was 17 years old. He began to teach himself camera tricks and techniques, and before long, the allure of Hollywood called him to the West Coast.
From there, Willett’s life story reads something like the plot of Forrest Gump. After a stint in Los Angeles, he joined the Army in the late 1950s. He later relocated to Las Vegas, where he taught himself piano while working in a furniture warehouse. He started a label by the name of Freeway Records, which counted amid its catalog some releases by Greg Penny (who’d go on to work with Elton John) as well as Willett’s own piano-playing persona Herman Schmerdley. He got some radio airplay with tunes like his rockabilly ditty “Mona Lisa” — it’s a good tune, look it up — and landed gigs playing in piano bars. But Hollywood was still calling his name, so he returned to L.A. and began pursuing work as a film and TV extra.
“You’re not supposed to crash auditions, but I crashed auditions,” says Willett of working his way into the industry. “One of the things I did, I got an Abe Lincoln beard and hat and everything. I was Abe Lincoln in a lot of productions, and that paid extra. I invested a little bit of money every week in wardrobe. I could be a cowboy, I could be a prisoner, I could be a detective.”
Throughout the ’80s and ’90s there were bit parts, TV roles, extra work and stand-in gigs. Willett got work on Amen, a series starring Sherman Hemsley, as well as a recurring role on Dear John, which starred Judd Hirsch and ran for several seasons. He got a close-up in Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, and he says he’s danced with Lana Turner, stood in for Mel Ferrer and Harvey Korman, doubled for Chevy Chase and James Cromwell, and even kissed Mary Steenburgen in Jonathan Demme’s 1980 film Melvin and Howard — the film for which Steenburgen landed an Oscar. “She got an Academy Award for kissing me,” he says.
But Willett ultimately decided to relocate, and he landed on Nashville as his new home. “When I relocated I would look for a city that seemed on its way up,” he says. “Like picking a stock in the stock market, you look for something that has a future. Nashville seemed — in 2006, and still — like, ‘They’ve got their act together.’ ”
Willett says he likes it here. He points out that the parking is better, and — even though it’s not quite as good as it is in L.A. — the weather’s not too bad. Now entering his 15th year here, he seems to be having a nice time in Nashville — just him, his cat Stormy, and a couple-hundred-thousand YouTube subscribers.
