Adam Williams (actor)

Adam Williams
Adam Williams in Without Warning, 1952
Born	Adam William Berg (1922-11-26)November 26, 1922 Wall Lake, Iowa, U.S.[1]
Died	December 4, 2006(2006-12-04) (aged 84) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Film and television actor, flight school owner
Years active	1951–1978
Spouse(s)	Marilee Phelps (?–1970; 3 children) Carole Berg (1974–2006; 3 children, 4 stepchildren)

Adam Williams (born Adam William Berg; November 26, 1922 – December 4, 2006)^[2] was an American film and television actor.

Life and career

Williams was born Adam William Berg in Wall Lake, Iowa, and likely raised in New York. A veteran "bad guy" actor of 1950s film and TV, he began his career after distinguished World War II military service as a United States Navy pilot, for which he received the Navy Cross. Berg was commended for his valor while operating a dive bomber off the USS Wasp in June 1944, in which he attacked a Japanese fleet oiler in the East Philippine Sea, and ditched upon his return without suffering casualties to his crew.^[3] An accomplished pilot, Williams also worked as an accident examiner for the FAA.^{[citation needed]}

In 1952, Williams played the lead, as a Los Angeles woman killer, in the film Without Warning! In 1953, he was cast as Larry, a car bomber, in The Big Heat. He had a leading role in the 1958 science fiction movie The Space Children. Other notable film roles include the psychiatrist in Fear Strikes Out (1957) and Valerian in Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959).

During the 1950s and 1960s, he appeared on dozens of television series, including the syndicated The Sheriff of Cochise, set in Arizona and starring John Bromfield, and Have Gun – Will Travel in the episode "The Reasonable Man". He portrayed private detective and murderer Jason Beckmeyer in the 1957 Perry Mason episode "The Case of the Runaway Corpse." In 1961, he was cast as Jim Gates in the episode "Frontier Week" on Joanne Dru's sitcom Guestward, Ho!, set on a dude ranch in New Mexico. In 1960, he appeared in the iconic The Twilight Zone season 1 episode "The Hitch-Hiker", starring Inger Stevens. He also appeared in the Twilight Zone episode "A Most Unusual Camera".^[4]

Between 1959 and 1967 he appeared in six episodes of The Rifleman and in four episodes of Bonanza, and in 1961 as Adam in "A Rope for Charlie Munday", in the ABC adventure series The Islanders. He was cast as Burley Keller in the 1961 episode "The Persecuted" of the ABC/Warner Brothers western series Lawman. He guest-starred in an episode of the 1961 NBC series The Americans, based on family conflicts stemming from the American Civil War, and in an episode of the 1961 series The Asphalt Jungle. One of his later roles was in the 1976 television movie Helter Skelter.

Death

On December 4, 2006, Williams died in Los Angeles of lymphoma at the age of 84. He was cremated.^[2]

Selected filmography

Further reading

• Schallert, Edwin (March 25, 1953). "Big-Game Hunter Brings African Film; Top Heavy Goes to Adam Williams". Los Angeles Times. p. 25.
• Childress, Fred (October 30, 1953). "Direction Adds Tense Excitement To 'Big Heat' on Palace Screen". Youngstown Vindicator. p. 14.
• "Victor Jory 'Shot' by Western Actor". Los Angeles Times. November 11, 1961. p. 19. Archived from the original on November 6, 2012. Retrieved July 5, 2017. Observers said a gun in the hands of actor Adam Williams discharged accidentally at a range of 6 in., inflicting powder burns.

References

External links

• Adam Williams at IMDb

This page was last edited on 10 April 2024, at 04:53