Adam Williams

DOB: 1922-11-26

DOD: 2006-12-04

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.

Starred In

1959
Movie

North by Northwest

1957
Movie

The Garment Jungle

1954
Movie

Dragonfly Squadron

1952
Movie

Without Warning!

1955
Movie

Crashout

1966
Movie

Follow Me, Boys!

1953
Movie

The Big Heat

1957
Movie

The Lonely Man

1965
Movie

The Glory Guys

1961
Movie

The Last Sunset

1956
Movie

The Rack

1953
Movie

Vice Squad

1958
Movie

Darby's Rangers

1976
Movie

Helter Skelter

1957
Movie

The Oklahoman

1957
Movie

Fear Strikes Out

1958
Movie

The Space Children

1951
Movie

Benjy

1958
Movie

The Badlanders

2012
Movie

Ladies Knight

1962
Movie

Convicts 4

1960
Movie

Mission of Danger

1951
Movie

Queen for a Day

1964
Movie

The New Interns

1955
Tv

Cheyenne

1965
Tv

The F.B.I.

1957
Tv

Perry Mason

1955
Tv

Gunsmoke

1962
Tv

Combat!

1959
Tv

Hawaiian Eye

1971
Tv

Cannon

1963
Tv

The Fugitive

1960
Tv

Outlaws

1966
Tv

Felony Squad

1959
Tv

Rawhide

1964
Tv

Daniel Boone

1975
Tv

Switch

1962
Tv

The Virginian

1960
Tv

Thriller

1957
Tv

M Squad

1956
Tv

Wire Service

1958
Tv

The Texan

1965
Tv

Honey West

1961
Tv

Dr. Kildare

1959
Tv

Black Saddle

1959
Tv

Black Saddle

1961
Tv

The Americans

1957
Tv

Maverick

1959
Tv

Bonanza

1960
Tv

Surfside 6

1960
Tv

Surfside 6

1959
Tv

Rawhide

1959
Tv

Bonanza

1959
Tv

Rawhide

1967
Tv

Mannix

1960
Tv

Surfside 6

1967
Tv

Mannix

1959
Tv

Bonanza

1959
Tv

Bonanza

1958
Tv

The Rifleman

1958
Tv

The Rifleman

1958
Tv

The Rifleman

1958
Tv

Lawman

1958
Tv

The Rifleman

1958
Tv

The Rifleman

1958
Tv

The Rifleman

1957
Tv

Trackdown

1957
Tv

Alcoa Theatre

1960
Tv

The Westerner

1962
Tv

Sam Benedict