Clarence Williams III

Clarence Williams III (21 Agustus 1939 – 4 Juni 2021) adalah seorang aktor Amerika. Williams adalah putra seorang musisi profesional, Clarence "Clay" Williams Jr., dan cucu dari komposer/pianis jazz dan blues Clarence Williams dan istrinya penyanyi-aktris, Eva Taylor. Dibesarkan oleh nenek dari pihak ayah, ia menjadi tertarik pada akting setelah secara tidak sengaja berjalan ke panggung teater di bawah Harlem YMCA. Williams mulai mengejar karir akting setelah menghabiskan dua tahun sebagai penerjun payung Angkatan Darat AS di Kompi C, Infanteri 506, dari Divisi Lintas Udara ke-101. Dia pertama kali muncul di Broadway dalam The Long Dream (1960). Melanjutkan karyanya di atas panggung, ia tampil di Walk in Darkness (1963), Sarah and the Sax (1964), Doubletalk (1964), dan King John. Peran teatrikalnya yang paling menonjol adalah dalam Slow Dance on the Killing Ground karya William Hanley, di mana ia menerima nominasi Tony Award. Kritikus drama New York Times Howard Taubman menulis tentang penampilannya, "Tuan Williams meluncur seperti seorang penari, memberikan pidatonya yang panjang dan penuh tipu daya dengan ritme ketakutan dan menunjukkan ketelanjangan teror ketika dia berhenti berpura-pura." Dia juga menjabat sebagai artist-in-residence di Universitas Brandeis pada tahun 1966. Peran Williams di televisi adalah sebagai polisi yang menyamar, Linc Hayes, di serial televisi polisi tandingan budaya ABC yang populer, The Mod Squad (1968), bersama dengan rekan yang tidak dikenal, Michael Cole dan Peggy Lipton. Setelah serial tersebut berakhir pada tahun 1973, ia bekerja dalam berbagai genre di panggung dan layar, dari komedi (I'm Gonna Git You Sucka, Half-Baked) hingga fiksi ilmiah (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), dan drama (Purple Rain). Selama lebih dari empat puluh tahun, karirnya termasuk peran ayah Prince yang tersiksa, yang juga seorang musisi, dalam Purple Rain (1984), penampilan tamu di Miami Vice (1985), peran berulang dalam serial TV surealis Twin Peaks (1990), seorang polisi yang baik di Deep Cover (1992), seorang perusuh dalam mini-seri Against the Wall (1994), dan ayah Wesley Snipes yang bergantung pada bahan kimia di Sugar Hill (1993). Perannya yang lain di televisi termasuk Hill Street Blues, film klasik kultus Kanada The Littlest Hobo, Miami Vice, The Highwayman, Burn Notice, Semua Orang Membenci Chris, Justified, Cold Case, dan Law & Order. Dia dapat dilihat dalam film-film seperti 52 Pick-Up, Life, The Cool World, Deep Cover, Tales from the Hood, Half-Baked, King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis, Hoodlum, Frogs for Snakes, Starstruck, The General's Daughter, Reindeer Games, Impostor, dan sebagai musisi jazz awal Jelly Roll Morton dalam The Legend of 1900. Dia juga memainkan peran pendukung sebagai film fiksi Afrika-Amerika karya George Wallace kepala pelayan dan penjaga dalam film TNT tahun 1997 George Wallace. Dari tahun 2003 hingga 2007, Williams memiliki peran berulang sebagai Philby Cross dalam serial film Mystery Woman di Hallmark Channel. Dia muncul di semua film kecuali yang pertama dari sebelas film bersama Kellie Martin (J.E. Freeman memerankan Philby dalam film pertama Mystery Woman). Dalam film ketujuh (Mystery Woman: At First Sight), ia bertemu kembali dengan rekan mainnya di Mod Squad, Michael Cole. Dia memerankan Bumpy Johnson dalam film American Gangster. Dari tahun 2005 hingga 2007 Williams mempunyai peran berulang lainnya sebagai pengisi suara Anggota Dewan Andam di serial animasi Disney American Dragon: Jake Long. Williams meninggal di Los Angeles, pada 4 Juni 2021, pada usia 81 tahun, karena kanker usus besar. Ia dimakamkan di Pemakaman St Charles di East Farmingdale, New York.

Clarence Williams III (August 21, 1939 – June 4, 2021) was an American actor. Williams was the son of a professional musician, Clarence "Clay" Williams Jr., and grandson of jazz and blues composer/pianist Clarence Williams and his singer-actress wife, Eva Taylor. Raised by his paternal grandmother, he became interested in acting after accidentally walking onto a stage at a theater below a Harlem YMCA. Williams began pursuing an acting career after spending two years as a U.S. Army paratrooper in C Company, 506th Infantry, of the 101st Airborne Division. He first appeared on Broadway in The Long Dream (1960). Continuing his work on stage, he appeared in Walk in Darkness (1963), Sarah and the Sax (1964), Doubletalk (1964), and King John. His breakout theatrical role was in William Hanley's Slow Dance on the Killing Ground, for which he received a Tony Award nomination. The New York Times drama critic Howard Taubman wrote of his performance, "Mr. Williams glides like a dancer, giving his long, fraudulently airy speeches the inner rhythms of fear and showing the nakedness of terror when he ceases to pretend." He also served as artist-in-residence at Brandeis University in 1966. Williams' breakout television role was as undercover cop Linc Hayes on the popular ABC counterculture police television series The Mod Squad (1968), along with fellow relative unknowns Michael Cole and Peggy Lipton. After the series ended in 1973, he worked in a variety of genres on stage and screen, from comedy (I'm Gonna Git You Sucka, Half-Baked) to sci-fi (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), and drama (Purple Rain). Spanning over forty years, his career included the role of Prince's tormented father, who was also a musician, in Purple Rain (1984), A guest appearance in Miami Vice (1985), a recurring role in the surreal TV series Twin Peaks (1990), a good cop in Deep Cover (1992), a rioter in the mini-series Against the Wall (1994), and Wesley Snipes' chemically dependent father in Sugar Hill (1993). His other roles on television include Hill Street Blues, the Canadian cult classic The Littlest Hobo, Miami Vice, The Highwayman, Burn Notice, Everybody Hates Chris, Justified, Cold Case, and Law & Order. He can be seen in films such as 52 Pick-Up, Life, The Cool World, Deep Cover, Tales from the Hood, Half-Baked, King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis, Hoodlum, Frogs for Snakes, Starstruck, The General's Daughter, Reindeer Games, Impostor, and as the early jazz musician Jelly Roll Morton in The Legend of 1900. He also played a supporting role as George Wallace's fictional African-American butler and caretaker in the 1997 TNT film George Wallace. From 2003 to 2007, Williams had a recurring role as Philby Cross in the Mystery Woman film series on the Hallmark Channel. He appeared in all but the first of the eleven films alongside Kellie Martin (J.E. Freeman played Philby in the Mystery Woman first film). In the seventh (Mystery Woman: At First Sight) film, he reunited with his Mod Squad co-star Michael Cole. He played Bumpy Johnson in the film American Gangster. From 2005 to 2007 Williams had another recurring role as the voice of Councilor Andam on the Disney animated series American Dragon: Jake Long. Williams died in Los Angeles, on June 4, 2021, at the age of 81, from colon cancer. He is buried in St Charles Cemetery in East Farmingdale, New York.