A star of stage, screen and television, Treat Williams has appeared in more than 75 films, several television series, and numerous Broadway and other theatrical productions. His next film, “Howl,” with Jon Hamm and James Franco, will open this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Yet Williams is apt to describe himself as a pilot rather than actor. A multiengine instrument rated commercial pilot with rotorcraft, CFI and Citation type ratings, the Park City, Utah resident has been flying since high school

I took off before sunrise once on a flight to LA. I was alone in my Cherokee 180, off to do a Spielberg film. I was only 24 and had just gotten my instrument rating. After flying through a lot of weather all the way to the edge of Ohio, I emerged into clear skies. I was just coming out of the Midwest and rising up into the plains. It was dawn and it was really mystical. It was an extraordinary feeling. I was flying about 1000 feet above the ground and I could see forever, and I realized how incredibly lucky I was. It was one of those really joyous experiences where you’re beside yourself with joy and it’s almost uncontainable. It was very spiritual. But I have little doses of that every time I fly an airplane. I get a little bump with that every time I lift off. I get a little rush of joy. It’s never stopped. And it hasn’t stopped in 30 years of flying.

“In my industry, in my business, let’s say you have a task, and that task is to perform a role in movie. And even if you think you did a hell of a good job, you can pick up a New York Times the next day and read scathing reports about what you did that you thought was good. It’s really hit or miss in terms of success or lack of success. Flying an airplane is so task specific. If you fly an airplane, let’s say on a rainy day from Teterboro [New Jersey] out of the edge of a front to beautiful sunny weather in Martha’s Vineyard, or vice versa, and you handle the instrument system well, and you accomplish that task, there’s a sense of incredible immediate satisfaction and gratification that you have this skill, and you work very hard to keep this skill at a very high level, because you have a lot of people whose safety is in your hands, and it’s an extraordinary feeling…. To have a skill that is a hand-eye coordination, nuts and bolts skill, as opposed to this kind of very vague, odd business I’m in, is a great balance in my life.”