Hilarie Burton Gets Emotional Talking About Late White Collar Costar Willie Garson: ‘My Biggest Cheerleader’

Hilarie Burton pays tribute to her late wife White collar Costar Willie Garson more than two years after his death from pancreatic cancer.

41-year-old One Tree Hill alum got emotional on Thursday’s episode View as she reflected on her friendship with Garson, who was 57 years old.

“He’s taught me so much and he’s always been my biggest cheerleader — oh, I’m going to cry,” she said. “Honoring him in this felt very important.”

“Obviously, when I started writing the book, I didn’t know we were going to lose him,” she added of her new book Grimoire Girl: Creating a Legacy of Magic and Mischief. “But being able to honor him in this way seemed very important to me because he was written down in the pages of my grimoire. I am different because of that influence.”

Robert Ascroft/USA Network/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty

Sarah Jessica Parker gave a sweet nod to late friend and “Sex and the City” actor Willie Garson on “AJLT”

Burton also shared that she bonded with Garson as they were both new parents while filming their USA Network drama. The actress shares Augustus (13) and George (5) with her husband Jeffrey Dean Morgan, while Garson adopted a son Nathen (22) in 2010.

“When I met Willie, my son was 3 months old. I got a job with him, and he just adopted his son, so we were new parents together,” she said. “I just got back to Manhattan. So as new parents, we would go out on the town together and just be each other’s comfort zone.”

Hilarie Burton Explains Late Tattoo Tribute” Willie Garson: ‘He Saw A Version Of Me I Haven’t Yet’

Hilarie Burton/instagram

Burton and Garson acted together in the USA White collarwhich aired from 2009 to 2014. Garson played Mozzie, while Burton played Sara Ellis when she joined the cast in 2010.

Burton opened up to PEOPLE in September 2021 about how their on-set friendship came about.

“Willie was the person who took me under his wing and had lunch with me and took me out to dinner,” she said at the time. “He saw a version of me that I’m not yet, but that I’m working on.”

Hilarie Burton got a tattoo in honor of Willie Garson before his death: ‘I needed him to know how I felt’

In honor of her late friend, Burton got a new tattoo shortly before her death in September 2021. On her left forearm, it reads, “Take it easy.”

“He would give you the biggest compliment in the world, and as soon as you started to feel embarrassed about it, he’d say, ‘Calm down, calm down,'” she explained. “It was his way of getting you to accept a compliment, because he’d brush it off, which was a nice habit.”

Robert Ascroft/Getty

Following the news of Garson’s death, Burton shared a heartfelt tribute to her former colleague on Instagram. Among the carousel of photos, she included a note that Garson had written to her and her husband when he presented them with a first edition copy Fruits of wrath as a wedding gift.

The message read in part: “It’s kind of hard to give gifts to people I care so much about – so here it is – first edition, first printing (book cover is a reproduction of the original, coins are about $15,000 – I mean I like you, but calm down themselves).”

In her caption, Burton wrote that she included the note “because it illustrates a quality of Willie that I loved” — and that it would become the inspiration for a new tattoo.

She continued, “Before I went to see him, I needed him to know how I felt. And @hudsonvalleytattooco was so kind and understanding and took me in the night before my flight. I wanted Willie to know that I carry that ‘calmness’ down there with me forever.”

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White collar can be streamed in full on Hulu.

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education