Bed-Stuy's Own Ted Williams Lands Cheesy Commercial

The Bed-Stuy born panhandler who shot to stardom last week after his silky voice was discovered on the streets of Ohio, already is featured in his own cheesy commercial for, what else but, Kraft Homestyle Macaroni & Cheese.

The voiceover featuring Ted Williams enters just seven seconds before the end of the commercial, but the sultry tone and timbre is familiar and undeniably his.

The commercial is the first of what surely will be many job opportunities for Ted Williams. Even Oprah Winfrey has tapped Williams to lend his voice for her newly launched OWN network.

Since his discovery, Williams has cleaned up his act and hit the talk-show-circuit ground running.

In the 1980’s Williams was a happily married radio announcer before he began turning to alcohol and women. Williams said, after he started smoking crack, his marriage fell completely apart. Before he knew it, he started committing petty crimes to survive, and living in and out of shelters.

For twenty years, Williams survived off of the generosity of others, always hoping someone would acknowledge his last and only hope for recompense: his amazingly suave, announcer-like voice. Finally, two weeks ago, videographer Doral Chenoweth III, from Ohio’s Columbus Dispatch videotaped Williams’s versatile baritone. And in no time, the video went viral, receiving 4.5 million hits in two days, according to ViralVideoChart.com.

Since then, it has been fast-forward for Williams, with announcer offers flying at him from every direction.

In between sifting through job offers on Wednesday, a tearful Williams told CBS' "The Early Show" the best gift of his newfound fame was the chance to visit his mom.

Williams returned to New York City last Thursday -- the first time since 1986 -- to reunite with his mother, 90-year-old Julia Williams, who still lives in the same Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood where Williams was raised.

"I apologize. I'm getting a little emotional. I haven't seen my mom in a great deal of time," said Williams.

"One of my biggest prayers that I sent out was that she would live long enough for me to see me rebound or whatever, and I guess God kept her around and kept my pipes around to maybe just have one more shot," he said.