Adam Williams
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.
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Movies (29)
Ladies Knight
2012 · Doofus (voice)
Helter Skelter
1976 · Terrence Milik
This Is a Hijack
1973 · Smitty
Follow Me, Boys!
1966 · Sergeant (uncredited)
The Glory Guys
1965 · Pvt. Lucas Crain
The New Interns
1964 · Wolanski
Gunfight at Comanche Creek
1963 · Jed Hayden
Convicts 4
1962 · Guard
The Last Sunset
1961 · Calverton
Mission of Danger
1960
North by Northwest
1959 · Valerian
The Badlanders
1958 · Deputy Leslie
The Space Children
1958 · Dave Brewster
Darby's Rangers
1958 · Heavy Hall
The Lonely Man
1957 · Lon
The Oklahoman
1957 · Bob Randell
The Garment Jungle
1957 · Ox
Fear Strikes Out
1957 · Doctor Brown
The Rack
1956 · Sgt. Otto Pahnke
The Proud and Profane
1956 · Eustace Press
Crashout
1955 · Fred Summerfield
The Yellow Tomahawk
1954 · Cpl. Maddock
Dragonfly Squadron
1954 · Capt. Wyler
The Big Heat
1953 · Larry Gordon
Vice Squad
1953 · Marty Kusalich
Without Warning!
1952 · Carl Martin
Flying Leathernecks
1951 · Lt. Bert Malotke
Queen for a Day
1951 · Chuck
Benjy
1951 · Mr. Miller
TV shows (56)
Switch
1975 · Henry Corwin
Cannon
1971
Marcus Welby, M.D.
1969 · Dr. Schmidt
Mannix
1967 · Prosecutor, George Henderson
The High Chaparral
1967 · Burton
Felony Squad
1966
The F.B.I.
1965 · David Brice
Honey West
1965 · Gordon Forbes
Daniel Boone
1964 · Mose
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
1964 · Chief
Kraft Suspense Theatre
1963 · Ben Jorgenson
Temple Houston
1963 · Harmony Brown
The Fugitive
1963 · Truck Driver
Arrest and Trial
1963 · C.H. Littler
The Gallant Men
1962
Combat!
1962 · Lt. Col. Nash
The Virginian
1962 · Roper
Sam Benedict
1962 · Burton Harper
Dr. Kildare
1961 · Ralph Walker
The Asphalt Jungle
1961
The Americans
1961
The Roaring 20's
1960
Surfside 6
1960 · Willie Cleveland, Henry Gifford, Mel Walters
Stagecoach West
1960 · Arnie Ames
The Westerner
1960 · Pauk
Guestward, Ho!
1960
Outlaws
1960
Thriller
1960 · Hymie Kralik
The Detectives
1959 · Eddie Furman, Soley, Felix
The Untouchables
1959 · Lloyd Barker, Paul Meadows
Hawaiian Eye
1959 · Harry Gulliver
The Twilight Zone
1959 · Woodward, Sailor
Bonanza
1959 · Muller, Blackie Marx, Red Twilight, Hardesty
Black Saddle
1959 · Brad Pickard, Clint Frome
Rawhide
1959 · Kellino, Jeb, Hank Kale
77 Sunset Strip
1958 · Willie Lee Hanks, Axel Derwent, Spud Morrison, Chuck Lynch
Lawman
1958 · Burley Keller
The Rifleman
1958 · Jake Pardee, Corporal Troc, Jax, Russell Ganaway, Cory Platt, Mal Sherman, Teleplay, Story
The Texan
1958 · Jebb Kilmer
Trackdown
1957 · Cowboy
Alcoa Theatre
1957 · Wohlman
Maverick
1957 · Sam Elkins
Perry Mason
1957 · Jason Beckmeyer
M Squad
1957 · Denny Sutton
Have Gun, Will Travel
1957 · Frank Gault, Beckett, Simon Quill
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
1956 · Harlan Breckenridge
Wire Service
1956 · Wells
Telephone Time
1956
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
1955 · Police Lt. King, Doctor
Cheyenne
1955 · Jeb Quinn
Gunsmoke
1955 · Slim Trent
The Millionaire
1955 · Todd Burke, Jackson Greene
General Electric Theater
1953 · Glen
The Ford Television Theatre
1952 · Private Littauer
Four Star Playhouse
1952 · George
Chevron Theatre
1952