On the cinema, the Harlem native depicted Princes struggling father in Purple Rain (1984) and was Wesley Snipes and Michael Wrights drug-addled dad in Sugar Hill (1993 ). In Giuseppe Tornatores The Legend of 1900 (1998 ), Williams took advantage of his familys musical roots to appear as jazz legend Jelly Roll Morton.

Known for his prodigious afro and gap-toothed smile, Williams also worked regularly with famous director John Frankenheimer, initially on Elmore Leonards 52 Pick-Up (1986) and after that on The Generals Daughter (1999 ), Reindeer Games (2000) and two telefilms, the Attica-set Against the Wall in 1994 and George Wallace in 1997.
Williams also displayed a flair of comedy, playing a previous leader of individualss Revolutionary Army in Keenen Ivory Wayans blaxploitation parody Im Gon na Git You Sucka (1988) and the maniacal drug lord Samson Simpson in the classic Half-Baked (1998 ), starring Dave Chappelle.
And in Tales From the Hood (1995 ), Williams had some odd stories to tell as the eerie funeral director Mr. Simms.
Williams owned a debt of gratitude to Bill Cosby, who had seen Slow Dance on the Killing Ground and advised the actor to manufacturer Aaron Spelling, who was casting The Mod Squad. Spelling then offered Williams a small part as a reluctant vacation chauffeur on an anthology series that he and Danny Thomas were producing.
Spelling was on hand for Williams scene.
” They went in, they rob the shop, you heard a handgun shot and they ran in the cars and truck,” the producer recalled in a 1999 interview for the Archive of American Television. “Then [Williams] repelled and smashed right into a telephone pole. I thought everyone was killed.

Clarence Williams III, who starred as the brooding undercover police Lincoln Hayes on the countercultural 1968-73 ABC drama The Mod Squad, has passed away. He was 81.
Williams passed away in Los Angeles on Friday of colon cancer, his management told The Hollywood Reporter.

” They went in, they rob the shop, you heard a pistol shot and they ran in the car,” the manufacturer remembered in a 1999 interview for the Archive of American Television. I believed everyone was eliminated.

” We all hurried over. I said, Clarence, Clarence, what happened? He said, Ive never driven before. I said, Why didnt you inform me that? He stated, Because I desired the job. I hired him that night for Mod Squad. ”
Developed by Bud Ruskin, who had led an LAPD undercover narcotics system, The Mod Squad ended up airing for 5 seasons on ABC. Williams, Peggy Lipton as Julie Barnes and Michael Cole as Pete Cochran portrayed young adults who had run-ins with the law– Linc had actually been apprehended throughout the Watts riots– before ending up being police officers under the command of Capt. Adam Greer (Tige Andrews).
The Mod Squad used the countercultural vibe of the age, integrating timely issues like bigotry, anti-war protests and drug dependency into stories as Linc, Julie and Pete infiltrated high schools, acting classes, prisons, hippie papers, gangs, film sets, etc. to capture the bad people.
” They were most absolutely the hippest and coolest undercover polices on television at the time,” notes the website Groovy History.
Williams was born on Aug. 21, 1939, the boy of expert musician Clay Williams. He was raised by his grandparents: composer-pianist Clarence Williams, a frequent partner of blues legend Bessie Smith whose tunes were utilized years later on in Aint Misbehavin, and Eva Taylor, a singer and actress.
Williams became exposed to serving as a teenager when he came across a wedding rehearsal for Dark of the Moon at the Harlem YMCA– Cicely Tyson was starring in it– and the director gave him a couple of lines in the play.
After appearing in an uncredited role in Lewis Milestones Pork Chop Hill (1959) and on Broadway in 1960s The Long Dream, Williams enlisted in the U.S. Army and functioned as a paratrooper in the 101st Airborne Division.
Back home, he used Broadway in The Great Indoors and worked as an artist-in-residence at Brandeis University prior to his big break on The Mod Squad.
Linc “was a very different function for an African-American and a fantastic lead character that a lot of youngsters, white and black, and primarily African-American children might relate to,” he informed the Los Angeles Times in 1995.
5 years on the show was enough for him.
” They wished to go six or 7 years, and I chose I didnt desire to do that,” Williams told the Chicago Tribune in 1997. “I d done all I might with the part. And so I said let me return, refresh myself, learn some things, read, travel and simply attempt to put some more arrows in my quiver.”
Williams did return for a Mod Squad reunion telefilm in 1979. (Omar Epps played Linc opposite Claire Danes and Giovanni Ribisi in an ill-advised 1999 function variation of the series.).
He went on to play FBI representative Roger Hardy on the original Twin Peaks and the humanoid Omet iklan on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. And from 2003-07, Williams depicted daddy figure Philby Cross opposite Kellie Martin in 10 Mystery Woman telefilms on Hallmark Channel.
His body of work also consisted of the motion pictures The Cool World (1963 ), Deep Cover (1992 ), Hoodlum (1997 ), Life (1999 ), Impostor (2001 ), Constellation (2005 ), American Gangster (2007 ), A Day in the Life (2009) and Lee Daniels The Butler (2013) and appearances on TELEVISIONs Hill Street Blues, Miami Vice, Law & & Order, Everybody Hates Chris, Burn Notice, Justified and Empire.

I employed him that night for Mod Squad. ”
” They desired to go six or seven years, and I chose I didnt want to do that,” Williams told the Chicago Tribune in 1997. And so I said let me go back, refresh myself, discover some things, check out, take a trip and just try to put some more arrows in my quiver.”

An actor of unusual strength, Williams started his profession on the phase and made a Tony nomination in 1965 for best featured star in a play for his operate in the effective three-person drama Slow Dance on the Killing Ground. Years later on, he went back to Broadway to star opposite Maggie Smith in the original 1979 production Tom Stoppards Night and Day.

Williams was married to starlet Gloria Foster (Oracle in the very first 2 Matrix motion pictures) from 1967-84.
He is endured by his sibling Sondra Pugh, child Jamey Phillips, niece Suyin Shaw, grandnephews Elliot Shaw and Ese Shaw, and grandniece Azaria Verdin.