Clarence Williams III

Overview

Known for
Acting
Gender
Other
Birthday
Aug 21, 1939 (85 years old)
Death date
Jun 04, 2021

Clarence Williams III

Known For

American Nightmares
1h 30m
Movie 2018

American Nightmares

Two voyeuristic nerds are hacking the devices of people as they themselves are hacked by the feed from story tellers Mister Malevolent and Mystic Woman who have seven moralistic horror stories to tell.

The Way of War
1h 30m
Movie 2009

The Way of War

Paramilitary operative David Wolfe stumbles upon an international conspiracy connecting presidential cabinet members to a Middle Eastern terrorist plot. Wanting to expose the truth, Wolfe defies orders and returns to the US as an army of one fighting for American security and integrity

American Gangster
2h 37m
Movie 2007

American Gangster

Loosely based on the criminal career of Frank Lucas, a gangster from La Grange, North Carolina, who smuggled heroin into the United States on American service planes returning from the Vietnam War, before being detained by a task force led by Newark Detective Richie Roberts.

Mystery Woman: In the Shadows
1h 22m
Movie 2007

Mystery Woman: In the Shadows

While searching for a KGB double agent who was about to be exposed by another Russian spy-turned-successful author, mystery bookstore owner Samantha Kinsey and her good friend and store manager Philby are thrust into the murderous world of international espionage.

Mystery Woman: Redemption
1h 17m
Movie 2006

Mystery Woman: Redemption

Samantha Kinsey is the owner of the Mystery Woman bookstore and an expert in criminology. This time she will have to solve the murder of a war veteran. As always, she will face the police chief Connor, who will try by all means to derail the investigation of Samantha and her friend, the district attorney.

Mystery Woman: Mystery Weekend
2h 0m
Movie 2005

Mystery Woman: Mystery Weekend

She's an avid mystery lover and bookseller, for whom crime has been comfortably confined to the pages of her favorite novels-until a real-life murder turns a weekend of fun and games into a chilling whodunit...

The General's Daughter
1h 56m
Movie 1999

The General's Daughter

When the body of Army Capt. Elisabeth Campbell is found on a Georgia military base, two investigators, Warrant Officers Paul Brenner and Sara Sunhill, are ordered to solve her murder. What they uncover is anything but clear-cut. Unseemly details emerge about Campbell's life, leading to allegations of a possible military coverup of her death and the involvement of her father, Lt. Gen. Joseph Campbell.

Life
1h 48m
Movie 1999

Life

Two men in 1930s Mississippi become friends after being sentenced to life in prison together for a crime they did not commit.

The Legend of 1900
2h 50m
Movie 1998

The Legend of 1900

The story of a virtuoso piano player who lives his entire life aboard an ocean liner. Born and raised on the ship, 1900 learned about the outside world through interactions with passengers, never setting foot on land, even for the love of his life. Years later, the ship may be destroyed, and a former band member fears that 1900 may still be aboard, willing to go down with the ship.

Starstruck
1h 30m
Movie 1998

Starstruck

An aspiring screenwriter in Los Angeles befriends a washed up, former teen idol and develops an unhealthy relationship with him.

Biography

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.

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