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 composerpianist Clarence Williams and his singeractress 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 US 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 Hanleys 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 artistinresidence 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 Im Gonna Git You Sucka HalfBaked to scifi Star Trek Deep Space Nine and drama Purple Rain Spanning over forty years his career included the role of Princes 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 miniseries 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 PickUp Life The Cool World Deep Cover Tales from the Hood HalfBaked King A Filmed Record Montgomery to Memphis Hoodlum Frogs for Snakes Starstruck The Generals 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 Wallaces fictional AfricanAmerican 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 JE Freeman played Philby in the Mystery Woman first film In the seventh Mystery Woman At First Sight film he reunited with his Mod Squad costar 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
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