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.

Known For: Acting

Born: Wall Lake, Iowa, USA, 1922-11-26

Died: 2006-12-04

Film

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1951	Benjy	Mr. Miller	67
2	1951	Queen for a Day	Chuck	60
3	1951	Flying Leathernecks	Lt. Bert Malotke	59
4	1952	Without Warning!	Carl Martin	59
5	1953	Vice Squad	Marty Kusalich	59
6	1953	The Big Heat	Larry Gordon	76
7	1954	Dragonfly Squadron	Capt. Wyler	60
8	1954	The Yellow Tomahawk	Cpl. Maddock	60
9	1955	Crashout	Fred Summerfield	65
10	1956	The Proud and Profane	Eustace Press	60
11	1956	The Rack	Sgt. Otto Pahnke	66
12	1957	Fear Strikes Out	Doctor Brown	70
13	1957	The Garment Jungle	Ox	64
14	1957	The Oklahoman	Bob Randell	56
15	1957	The Lonely Man	Lon	60
16	1958	Darby's Rangers	Heavy Hall	59
17	1958	The Space Children	Dave Brewster	40
18	1958	The Badlanders	Deputy Leslie	62
19	1959	North by Northwest	Valerian	80
20	1960	Miss Jenny		0
21	1960	Mission of Danger		50
22	1961	The Last Sunset	Calverton	68
23	1962	Convicts 4	Guard	54
24	1963	Gunfight at Comanche Creek	Jed Hayden	55
25	1964	The New Interns	Wolanski	50
26	1965	The Glory Guys	Pvt. Lucas Crain	65
27	1966	Follow Me, Boys!	Sergeant (uncredited)	66
28	1976	Helter Skelter	Terrence Milik	68
29	2012	Ladies Knight	Doofus (voice)	0

Television

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1952	Chevron Theatre		100
2	1952	Four Star Playhouse	George	61
3	1952	The Ford Television Theatre		70
4	1952	The Ford Television Theatre	Private Littauer	70
5	1953	General Electric Theater	Glen	60
6	1955	The Millionaire	Todd Burke	50
7	1955	The Millionaire	Jackson Greene	50
8	1955	Gunsmoke	Slim Trent	66
9	1955	Cheyenne	Jeb Quinn	58
10	1955	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Police Lt. King	78
11	1955	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Doctor	78
12	1956	Telephone Time		63
13	1956	Wire Service	Wells	0
14	1956	Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre	Harlan Breckenridge	55
15	1957	Have Gun, Will Travel	Frank Gault	74
16	1957	Have Gun, Will Travel	Beckett	74
17	1957	Have Gun, Will Travel	Simon Quill	74
18	1957	M Squad	Denny Sutton	52
19	1957	Perry Mason	Jason Beckmeyer	77
20	1957	Maverick	Sam Elkins	68
21	1957	Alcoa Theatre	Wohlman	62
22	1957	Trackdown	Cowboy	64
23	1958	The Texan	Jebb Kilmer	55
24	1958	The Rifleman	Jake Pardee	71
25	1958	The Rifleman	Corporal Troc	71
26	1958	The Rifleman	Jax	71
27	1958	The Rifleman	Russell Ganaway	71
28	1958	The Rifleman	Cory Platt	71
29	1958	The Rifleman	Mal Sherman	71
30	1958	Lawman	Burley Keller	54
31	1958	77 Sunset Strip	Willie Lee Hanks	67
32	1958	77 Sunset Strip	Axel Derwent	67
33	1958	77 Sunset Strip	Spud Morrison	67
34	1958	77 Sunset Strip	Chuck Lynch	67
35	1959	Rawhide	Kellino	72
36	1959	Rawhide	Jeb	72
37	1959	Rawhide	Hank Kale	72
38	1959	Black Saddle	Brad Pickard	60
39	1959	Black Saddle	Clint Frome	60
40	1959	Bonanza	Muller	75
41	1959	Bonanza	Blackie Marx	75
42	1959	Bonanza	Red Twilight	75
43	1959	Bonanza	Hardesty	75
44	1959	The Twilight Zone	Woodward	84
45	1959	The Twilight Zone	Sailor	84
46	1959	Hawaiian Eye	Harry Gulliver	52
47	1959	The Untouchables	Lloyd Barker	79
48	1959	The Untouchables	Paul Meadows	79
49	1959	The Detectives	Eddie Furman	56
50	1959	The Detectives	Soley	56
51	1959	The Detectives	Felix	56
52	1960	Thriller	Hymie Kralik	64
53	1960	Outlaws		62
54	1960	Guestward, Ho!		40
55	1960	The Westerner	Pauk	67
56	1960	Stagecoach West	Arnie Ames	60
57	1960	Surfside 6	Willie Cleveland	50
58	1960	Surfside 6	Henry Gifford	50
59	1960	Surfside 6	Mel Walters	50
60	1960	The Roaring 20's		0
61	1961	The Americans		60
62	1961	The Asphalt Jungle		50
63	1961	Dr. Kildare	Ralph Walker	54
64	1962	Sam Benedict	Burton Harper	60
65	1962	The Virginian	Roper	64
66	1962	Combat!	Lt. Col. Nash	76
67	1962	The Gallant Men		60
68	1963	Arrest and Trial	C.H. Littler	70
69	1963	The Fugitive	Truck Driver	72
70	1963	Temple Houston	Harmony Brown	57
71	1963	Kraft Suspense Theatre	Ben Jorgenson	53
72	1964	Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea	Chief	77
73	1964	Daniel Boone	Mose	69
74	1965	Honey West	Gordon Forbes	70
75	1965	The F.B.I.	David Brice	56
76	1966	Felony Squad		70
77	1967	The High Chaparral	Burton	65
78	1967	Mannix	Prosecutor	67
79	1967	Mannix	George Henderson	67
80	1969	Marcus Welby, M.D.	Dr. Schmidt	65
81	1971	Cannon		65
82	1975	Switch	Henry Corwin	67