Born in Elmira, New York in 1930, he attended Harvard University[1] and studied with Paul Hindemith, Walter Piston, and Randall Thompson.

[2][3] After working at MOMA, he produced a PBS television series, The Silent Years (1971, 1975) hosted by Orson Welles and Lillian Gish, which won an Emmy Award.

[5][6] For three years (1976–1978) he produced a national poetry series for PBS, Anyone for Tennyson,[7][8] starring Henry Fonda, Jack Lemmon, Claire Bloom, William Shatner and Vincent Price among others.

[11][12] These films, produced by Perry's Great Amwell Company in association with the Nebraska ETV Network, also won five Cine Golden Eagle Awards.

[13] Novelist Kurt Vonnegut introduced the series,[14] which began with "Life on the Mississippi"[15] and culminated with a four-hour adaptation of "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Perry's Broadway musical, Wind in the Willows,[20][21] starring Nathan Lane, received a Tony nomination for its original score (1986).

It was released on CD by Naxos Records with Yehuda Hanani as soloist and the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra conducted by William Eddins.

Over the years William Perry has won more than a dozen ASCAP Awards for his musical compositions, and in 1984 Elmira College conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters in recognition of his contributions to the field of Mark Twain studies.