Richard Anthony Williams was an American actor. Williams is best known for his starring performances on Broadway in The Poison Tree, What the Wine-Sellers Buy and Black Picture Show. Williams also had notable roles in 1970s blaxploitation films such as The Mack and Slaughter's Big Rip-Off.
Williams began his career during his late teens as a member of Williams Brothers Quartet, singing group founded in Chicago. He later moved to Los Angeles and began his acting career. Some of Williams roles included Pretty Tony in The Mack, the limo driver in Dog Day Afternoon, Denzel Washington's father in Mo' Better Blues and Officer Allen in Edward Scissorhands, and his other film credits include Uptight, The Anderson Tapes, Who Killed Mary What's 'Er Name?, Five on the Black Hand Side, Deadly Hero, The Deep, An Almost Perfect Affair, The Jerk, The Night the City Screamed, The Star ChamberGardens of Stone, as Diamond's father in The Player's Club, and Roberto in Blood and Bone. In television, Williams guest starred in the Season 1 episode of Starsky & Hutch, "Kill Huggy Bear." He played the title character in the Phillip Hayes Dean drama Freeman, broadcast on PBS in October 1977. In the 1978 six-hour NBC docudrama King, about the life of Martin Luther King Jr., Williams played the role of Malcolm X. He guest starred on a number of TV shows including The Rockford Files, Cagney & Lacey, Lou Grant and Hart to Hart. Williams was a regular cast member on the post World War II–era ABC primetime soap opera Homefront, appearing in all 42 episodes as chauffeur Abe Davis. In 1996, he played the father of Larry's assistant Beverley in an episode of The Larry Sanders Show. Williams also starred in the documentary film The Meeting, about two African-American political leaders discussing the fate of black people in America. In 1971–1972, Williams appeared in Melvin Van Peebles' acclaimed off-Broadway musical "Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death." One of Williams' co-stars in the production was actress Gloria Edwards who would later become his wife.
Awards and nominations
Williams won the 1974 Drama Desk Award for his performance in What the Wine-Sellers Buy, for which he was also nominated for a Tony Award, and was nominated in 1975 for both a Tony and a Drama Desk Award for his performance in Black Picture Show.
Personal and Death
Williams was married once and had three children. In 1974, he married actress Gloria Edwards and together they had two children; Jason Edward Williams and Mikah Lauren Williams. Williams had a daughter, Mona from a previous relationship. Williams and Edwards were married until Edwards death in 1988. Williams died of cancer on February 16, 2012 at Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys, California.
