Clarence Williams III, a star of 'Mod Squad,' is dead at 81
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Thursday, November 14, 2024


Clarence Williams III, a star of 'Mod Squad,' is dead at 81
“The Mod Squad,” which ran from 1968 to 1973, was one of the first of its kind — a prime-time network series that focused on members of the hippie generation at the same time that it exploited them.

by Anita Gates



NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Clarence Williams III, the reflectively intense actor who starred as Linc Hayes, the young, hip undercover police officer with the perfect Afro and a way with the word “solid” on ABC’s “The Mod Squad,” died Friday in Los Angeles. He was 81.

The cause was colon cancer, his manager, Allan Mindel, said.

“The Mod Squad,” which ran from 1968 to 1973, was one of the first of its kind — a prime-time network series that focused on members of the hippie generation at the same time that it exploited them.

The show had two ad taglines. One was “First they got busted; then they got badges,” which summarized the show’s backstory: three hippies in trouble with the law who then joined the police force as plainclothes cops with built-in disguises — their youth and their counterculture personas. The second tagline — “One Black, one white, one blonde” — referred to the cast: Williams, Michael Cole and Peggy Lipton.

Aaron Spelling, the show’s producer, never liked Linc’s Afro, Williams recalled in an NPR interview in 1999, so the style was toned down. A bit. For a while. Then, each week, he said, “we’d tease it out a little bit more.”

Clarence Williams III was born to a show-business family in Manhattan on Aug. 21, 1939. His father, Clarence Jr., known as Clay, was a musician. His mother is omitted from his biographies. Asked about her Sunday, a family member declined to give her name and described her as “largely absent.”

His paternal grandparents, who raised him, were Clarence Williams, a jazz and blues composer and pianist, and Eva (Taylor) Williams, an actress and singer who also worked at jobs outside show business.

Although “The Mod Squad” made Williams a symbol of the Vietnam War generation, he actually served in the military just before that era. He was a paratrooper in the 101st Airborne Division in the late 1950s.

His interest in acting began when he visited a Harlem YMCA, where his sister was working, and dropped in to watch a play’s run-through. By the end of the evening, he had been cast in the production.

He began his acting career on Broadway, where his grandfather had appeared as early as 1908. The younger Williams appeared in three plays, including “Slow Dance on the Killing Ground” (1964), for which he received a Tony Award nomination and a Theater World Award. The New York Times review offered high praise.




“Mr. Williams glides like a dancer,” Howard Taubman wrote, “giving his long, fraudulently airy speeches the inner rhythms of fear and showing the nakedness of terror when he ceases to pretend.”

He owed his screen career to Bill Cosby, then a rising star. Cosby saw him on the New York stage and recommended him to Spelling, who was casting “The Mod Squad” at the time.

After the series ended, Williams dropped out of sight for a while, expressing disappointment in the kinds of roles available to Black men. He returned to Broadway, appearing as an African head of state, with Maggie Smith, in the Tom Stoppard drama “Night and Day” (1979).

Beginning in the 1980s, he had a busy film career. He played Prince’s abusive father in “Purple Rain” (1984) and Wesley Snipes’ heroin-addicted father in “Sugar Hill” (1993). He was a crazed blackmailer in John Frankenheimer’s “52 Pick-Up” (1986) and a wild-eyed storytelling mortician in “Tales From the Hood” (1995). He had small roles in the blaxploitation parody “I’m Gonna Git You Sucka” (1988) and in Norman Mailer’s “Tough Guys Don’t Dance” (1987).

Television brought Williams new opportunities too. He was a leader of the Attica prison riots in HBO’s “Against the Wall” (1994); a segregationist governor’s manservant in the miniseries “George Wallace” (1997); Muhammad Ali’s father in “Ali: An American Hero” (2000); and a retired CIA operative in 10 “Mystery Woman” movies (2003-07). He did guest appearances on close to 40 series, from “Hill Street Blues” to “Empire.”

His other film roles included a much-too-loyal aide-de-camp in “The General’s Daughter” (1999), a glowering criminal who is set on fire in “Reindeer Games” (2000), an old-school crime lord in “American Gangster” (2007) and a White House servant’s older mentor in Lee Daniels’ “The Butler” (2013). His last film was “American Nightmares” (2018), a horror comedy.

In 1967, Williams married Gloria Foster, a stage actress who appeared twice on “The Mod Squad” and later played the Oracle in “The Matrix.” They divorced in 1984.

Williams is survived by his daughter, Jamey Phillips, and his sister, Sondra Pugh.

He often contended that he didn’t take being a role model that seriously.

“All of this is escapism, fantasy,” he told TV Guide in 1970, early in the run of “The Mod Squad.” “This is what the box is about.”

In the same interview, though, he recalled being happily mobbed by young Black fans at a basketball game and acknowledged, “It’s kind of nice for kids to see a reflection of themselves.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.










Today's News

June 7, 2021

Toomey & Co. Auctioneers to hold 'Fine Art + Furniture & Decorative Arts' on June 9

Lost painting by Sir Winston Churchill from the Onassis Family Collection to be offered at Phillips

Major presentation of new works by Yayoi Kusama opens at Victoria Miro

Collectors of digital NFTs see a 'Wild West' market worth the risk

Clarence Williams III, a star of 'Mod Squad,' is dead at 81

David Zwirner opens an exhibition of paintings by Bridget Riley

Now Open: Diane Arbus curated by Carrie Mae Weems

Calder's Untitled and Kirchner's Pantomime Reimann: Die Rache der Tänzerin will highlight Christie's sale

The Metropolitan Museum of Art launches "Your Met Art Box" in collaboration with Citymeals on Wheels

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston presents one of the largest crochet works to date by Ernesto Neto

Yoshi Wada, inventive creator of sound worlds, dies at 77

Friedman Benda opens a group exhibition curated by Glenn Adamson

Four Scottish artists' work acquired by Government Art Collection

Christie's Paris Design sales achieved a total of €9,384,875

Original Air takes flight: The largest sneaker auction ever held at Christie's

Eva Birkenstock appointed new Director of the Ludwig Forum for International Art in Aachen

How 'Hamilton' saved a bookstore from dying

A beloved London concert hall grows bold as it turns 120

Kerlin Gallery opens solo exhibitions of works by Elizabeth Magill and Kathy Prendergast

Almine Rech London opens an exhibition of work by Larry Poons

With 'In the Heights,' Anthony Ramos finds stardom on his own terms

Want more diverse conductors? Orchestras should look to assistants.

$19 million in endowment gifts given to Minneapolis Institute of Art

Hemingway-inscribed For Whom the Bell Tolls headed to Heritage Auctions

Christie's achieves €8,2 million for the Post-War and Contemporary art day sale

Ground-breaking male form sale at Bonhams

Difference between Screen Printing and Digital Printing




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Attorneys
Truck Accident Attorneys
Accident Attorneys
Holistic Dentist
Abogado de accidentes
สล็อต
สล็อตเว็บตรง

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site Parroquia Natividad del Señor
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful