Adam Williams
Acting • Born 1922-11-26 – Died 2006-12-04
Biography
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.
Filmography
110 credits
North by Northwest
Movie • 1959
Valerian
The Garment Jungle
Movie • 1957
Ox
Dragonfly Squadron
Movie • 1954
Capt. Wyler
Without Warning!
Movie • 1952
Carl Martin
Crashout
Movie • 1955
Fred Summerfield
Follow Me, Boys!
Movie • 1966
Sergeant (uncredited)
The Big Heat
Movie • 1953
Larry Gordon
The Lonely Man
Movie • 1957
Lon
The Proud and Profane
Movie • 1956
Eustace Press
The Glory Guys
Movie • 1965
Pvt. Lucas Crain
The Last Sunset
Movie • 1961
Calverton
Flying Leathernecks
Movie • 1951
Lt. Bert Malotke
The Rack
Movie • 1956
Sgt. Otto Pahnke
Vice Squad
Movie • 1953
Marty Kusalich
Gunfight at Comanche Creek
Movie • 1963
Jed Hayden
Darby's Rangers
Movie • 1958
Heavy Hall
Helter Skelter
Movie • 1976
Terrence Milik
The Oklahoman
Movie • 1957
Bob Randell
Fear Strikes Out
Movie • 1957
Doctor Brown
The Space Children
Movie • 1958
Dave Brewster
Benjy
Movie • 1951
Mr. Miller
The Badlanders
Movie • 1958
Deputy Leslie
Ladies Knight
Movie • 2012
Doofus (voice)
The Yellow Tomahawk
Movie • 1954
Cpl. Maddock
Convicts 4
Movie • 1962
Guard
Mission of Danger
Movie • 1960
Queen for a Day
Movie • 1951
Chuck
The New Interns
Movie • 1964
Wolanski
The Gallant Men
TV • 1962
Cheyenne
TV • 1955
Jeb Quinn
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
TV • 1964
Chief
Kraft Suspense Theatre
TV • 1963
Ben Jorgenson
The F.B.I.
TV • 1965
David Brice
Perry Mason
TV • 1957
Jason Beckmeyer
Gunsmoke
TV • 1955
Slim Trent
Combat!
TV • 1962
Lt. Col. Nash
General Electric Theater
TV • 1953
Glen
Hawaiian Eye
TV • 1959
Harry Gulliver
Cannon
TV • 1971
The Fugitive
TV • 1963
Truck Driver
The Twilight Zone
TV • 1959
Woodward
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
TV • 1955
Police Lt. King
Outlaws
TV • 1960
Felony Squad
TV • 1966
Rawhide
TV • 1959
Kellino
Daniel Boone
TV • 1964
Mose
The High Chaparral
TV • 1967
Burton
Switch
TV • 1975
Henry Corwin
The Millionaire
TV • 1955
Todd Burke
The Virginian
TV • 1962
Roper
Thriller
TV • 1960
Hymie Kralik
M Squad
TV • 1957
Denny Sutton
Guestward, Ho!
TV • 1960
The Texan
TV • 1958
Jebb Kilmer
Wire Service
TV • 1956
Wells
Honey West
TV • 1965
Gordon Forbes
Dr. Kildare
TV • 1961
Ralph Walker
Telephone Time
TV • 1956
Black Saddle
TV • 1959
Brad Pickard
The Roaring 20's
TV • 1960
The Asphalt Jungle
TV • 1961
Black Saddle
TV • 1959
Clint Frome
The Americans
TV • 1961
Maverick
TV • 1957
Sam Elkins
The Ford Television Theatre
TV • 1952
Bonanza
TV • 1959
Muller
Surfside 6
TV • 1960
Willie Cleveland
Surfside 6
TV • 1960
Henry Gifford
Rawhide
TV • 1959
Jeb
Bonanza
TV • 1959
Blackie Marx
Rawhide
TV • 1959
Hank Kale
Temple Houston
TV • 1963
Harmony Brown
The Untouchables
TV • 1959
Lloyd Barker
The Millionaire
TV • 1955
Jackson Greene
Arrest and Trial
TV • 1963
C.H. Littler
Four Star Playhouse
TV • 1952
George
Marcus Welby, M.D.
TV • 1969
Dr. Schmidt
Mannix
TV • 1967
Prosecutor
Surfside 6
TV • 1960
Mel Walters
Bonanza
TV • 1959
Hardesty
Bonanza
TV • 1959
Red Twilight
Mannix
TV • 1967
George Henderson
The Detectives
TV • 1959
Eddie Furman
The Detectives
TV • 1959
Soley
Stagecoach West
TV • 1960
Arnie Ames
The Detectives
TV • 1959
Felix
77 Sunset Strip
TV • 1958
Spud Morrison
The Rifleman
TV • 1958
Corporal Troc
The Rifleman
TV • 1958
Russell Ganaway
The Untouchables
TV • 1959
Paul Meadows
77 Sunset Strip
TV • 1958
Willie Lee Hanks
Lawman
TV • 1958
Burley Keller
The Rifleman
TV • 1958
Jake Pardee
The Rifleman
TV • 1958
Jax
77 Sunset Strip
TV • 1958
Chuck Lynch
The Rifleman
TV • 1958
Cory Platt
77 Sunset Strip
TV • 1958
Axel Derwent
The Rifleman
TV • 1958
Mal Sherman
Chevron Theatre
TV • 1952
Alcoa Theatre
TV • 1957
Wohlman
Trackdown
TV • 1957
Cowboy
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
TV • 1956
Harlan Breckenridge
Have Gun, Will Travel
TV • 1957
Simon Quill
The Ford Television Theatre
TV • 1952
Private Littauer
Have Gun, Will Travel
TV • 1957
Beckett
Have Gun, Will Travel
TV • 1957
Frank Gault
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
TV • 1955
Doctor
The Westerner
TV • 1960
Pauk
The Twilight Zone
TV • 1959
Sailor
Sam Benedict
TV • 1962
Burton Harper