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Adam Williams

Adam Williams

Acting

November 26, 1922 – December 4, 2006 (died at 84)
Wall Lake, Iowa, USA
Male
28 Movies
84 TV Shows

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.

North by Northwest
North by Northwest

North by Northwest

1959 8.0

as Valerian

Age 36 (now 84)
The Big Heat
The Big Heat

The Big Heat

1953 7.7

as Larry Gordon

Age 30 (now 84)
The Space Children
The Space Children

The Space Children

1958 4.2

as Dave Brewster

Age 35 (now 84)
Without Warning!
Without Warning!

Without Warning!

1952 6.0

as Carl Martin

Age 29 (now 84)
The Last Sunset
The Last Sunset

The Last Sunset

1961 6.8

as Calverton

Age 38 (now 84)
Fear Strikes Out
Fear Strikes Out

Fear Strikes Out

1957 7.2

as Doctor Brown

Age 34 (now 84)
Vice Squad
Vice Squad

Vice Squad

1953 6.1

as Marty Kusalich

Age 30 (now 84)
Flying Leathernecks
Flying Leathernecks

Flying Leathernecks

1951 5.9

as Lt. Bert Malotke

Age 28 (now 84)
The Badlanders
The Badlanders

The Badlanders

1958 6.2

as Deputy Leslie

Age 35 (now 84)
The Glory Guys
The Glory Guys

The Glory Guys

1965 6.5

as Pvt. Lucas Crain

Age 42 (now 84)
The Garment Jungle
The Garment Jungle

The Garment Jungle

1957 6.5

as Ox

Age 34 (now 84)
Gunfight at Comanche Creek
Gunfight at Comanche Creek

Gunfight at Comanche Creek

1963 5.9

as Jed Hayden

Age 40 (now 84)
Crashout
Crashout

Crashout

1955 6.7

as Fred Summerfield

Age 32 (now 84)
The Rack
The Rack

The Rack

1956 6.6

as Sgt. Otto Pahnke

Age 33 (now 84)
The Proud and Profane
The Proud and Profane

The Proud and Profane

1956 6.5

as Eustace Press

Age 33 (now 84)
The Lonely Man
The Lonely Man

The Lonely Man

1957 6.1

as Lon

Age 34 (now 84)