Adam Williams

Birthday: 1922-11-26
Deathday: 2006-12-04
Birthplace: Wall Lake, Iowa, USA
Gender: Male
Owned By: Unowned

Adam Williams (born Adam William Berg, November 26, 1922 – December 4, 2006) was an American film and television actor. 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. In 1952, Williams played the lead, 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 North by Northwest (1959).

During the 1950s and 1960s, he appeared on dozens of television series, including the syndicated 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 played the role of a sailor hitching a ride in The Twilight Zone season 1 episode "The Hitch-Hiker", where he is picked up by a terrified driver played by Inger Stevens, who is compelled to pick him up so that he may offer protection and safety to her from a mysterious hitchhiker who shows up at various times and places along the road while she travels across country. Many reviewers have cited this episode as one of The Twilight Zone's "10 Greatest" of the series. He had also appeared in the Twilight Zone episode "A Most Unusual Camera". 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.

Credits

Year Title Character
2012-05-09 Ladies Knight Doofus (voice)
1976-04-01 Helter Skelter Terrence Milik
1966-12-01 Follow Me, Boys! Sergeant (uncredited)
1965-07-07 The Glory Guys Pvt. Lucas Crain
1964-06-01 The New Interns Wolanski
1963-11-06 Gunfight at Comanche Creek Jed Hayden
1962-09-15 Convicts 4 Guard
1961-06-08 The Last Sunset Calverton
1960-01-16 Mission of Danger
1960-01-07 Miss Jenny
1959-07-08 North by Northwest Valerian
1958-09-03 The Badlanders Deputy Leslie
1958-06-01 The Space Children Dave Brewster
1958-02-12 Darby's Rangers Heavy Hall
1957-06-21 The Lonely Man Lon
1957-05-19 The Oklahoman Bob Randell
1957-05-01 The Garment Jungle Ox
1957-03-20 Fear Strikes Out Doctor Brown
1956-11-02 The Rack Sgt. Otto Pahnke
1956-06-13 The Proud and Profane Eustace Press
1955-03-01 Crashout Fred Summerfield
1954-05-01 The Yellow Tomahawk Cpl. Maddock
1954-03-21 Dragonfly Squadron Capt. Wyler
1953-10-14 The Big Heat Larry Gordon
1953-07-31 Vice Squad Marty Kusalich
1952-05-08 Without Warning! Carl Martin
1951-08-28 Flying Leathernecks Lt. Bert Malotke
1951-07-07 Queen for a Day Chuck
1951-01-01 Benjy Mr. Miller