Personal problems and failing health forced Williams to retire in 1971 and, at the age of 34, he was found dead two years later as the result of an apparent suicide.

[3] As teenagers, Williams, Kendricks, and Kell Osborne and Willie Waller performed in a secular singing group known as The Cavaliers,[4] with dreams of making it big in the music industry.

While on this visit, he and Paul had learned that Otis Williams, head of a rival Detroit act known as the Distants, had two openings in his group's lineup.

[5] Although the group now had a record deal, Paul Williams and his bandmates endured a long series of failed singles before finally hitting the Billboard Top 20 in 1964 with "The Way You Do the Things You Do".

Williams' later leads on Temptations songs include "Just Another Lonely Night" (1965), "No More Water in the Well" (1967), and a cover version of "Hey Girl" (originally by Freddie Scott) released in 1969.

Williams also sang lead with Dennis Edwards, who joined in 1968, on Motown's first Grammy Award winner, "Cloud Nine".

[10] His health had deteriorated to the point that he would sometimes be unable to perform, suffering from combinations of exhaustion and pain which he combated with heavy drinking.

Each of the other four Temptations did what they could to help Williams, alternating between raiding and draining his alcohol stashes, personal interventions, and keeping oxygen tanks backstage.

[11] Because Williams's voice had become ravaged due to his respiratory illness and alcoholism, the Temptations decided to resort to enlisting an on-hand fill-in for him.

In support of helping Williams get back on his feet, he was paid his one-fifth share of the group's royalties, and kept on the payroll as an advisor and choreographer for the next two years.

[16] On August 17, 1973, Williams was found dead inside a car parked in an alley having just left the new house of his then-girlfriend after an argument.

In 1998, NBC aired The Temptations, a four-hour television miniseries based upon an autobiographical book by Otis Williams.

The music video for the Diana Ross song "Missing You" pays tribute to Marvin Gaye, Florence Ballard, Tammi Terrell, and Paul Williams, all former Motown artists who had died.