Bill Williams(1915-1992)
- Actor
A solid film and TV player bearing a strong, honest persona for most
his career, this innocent-eyed, boyishly handsome blond "B" actor of
the 1940s and '50s was born in Brooklyn on May 21, 1915, and educated
there at the Pratt Institute. A natural athlete, Bill Williams was a
professional swimmer who broke into the entertainment business
combining his swimming and dancing skills performing in aquatic
underwater shows. Gaining experience as a performer in vaudeville and
stock shows (both here and England), he started appearing in extra or
bit parts in films following WWII army duty. He made his debut in
Murder in the Blue Room (1944)
and could be glimpsed here and there as various student, soldier or
rookie types for the first couple of years.
By the time the war ended, RKO Pictures had him under contract and gave
him co-star billing in such promising entries as
Till the End of Time (1946)
in which he played Robert Mitchum's ex-GI
buddy, and the film noir piece
Deadline at Dawn (1946) as a
sailor who gets tangled up with both murder and lovelies
Susan Hayward and
Lola Lane. In 1945 fellow RKO
actress Barbara Hale asked the director of West of the Pecos (1945), Edward Killy, to hire Bill so they could spend time together (see Barbara Hale's personal quotes).
They married a year later and went on to co-star together in the light
comedy A Likely Story (1947) and
the film noir suspense film
The Clay Pigeon (1949). They
had two daughters and a son.
Bill was a reliable "nice guy" lead and second lead. While he showed
steady improvement and likability in films, he had a difficult time
rising above the benign "B" adventure material he was shoehorned into
playing
(Fighting Man of the Plains (1949),
Rookie Fireman (1950),
The Cariboo Trail (1950), to
name a few). In the early '50s he started checking out the relatively
new medium of TV as a viable means of employment. He scored big with
the kiddies as the title hero in the syndicated
The Adventures of Kit Carson (1951),
which ran for three seasons, and later shifted to lighter, less
strenuous work as Betty White's
hubby in the promising but short-lived domestic comedy
Date with the Angels (1957).
In 1960 he returned to his watery roots with the "Sea Hunt" inspired
adventure Assignment: Underwater (1960) but the program was
short-lived. He also appeared in guest assignments in such popular TV
shows as "Rawhide," "77 Sunset Strip," and "Hawaiian Eye," not to
mention multiple episodes of wife Barbara's series "Perry Mason," in
which she co-starred as girl Friday Della Street.
While Bill continued to perform throughout the 1970s and into the early
'80s in character roles, he was seen less and less as his interest
waned. Bill and Barbara did appear together in the films
Buckskin (1968) and
The Giant Spider Invasion (1975),
as well as occasionally on TV. Their middle child, son
William Katt, a blond stunner who went on
to fame in the movie Carrie (1976) and the
weekly series spoof
The Greatest American Hero (1981),
obviously got his incredibly good looks from his dad. Bill died of a
brain tumor in 1992.
his career, this innocent-eyed, boyishly handsome blond "B" actor of
the 1940s and '50s was born in Brooklyn on May 21, 1915, and educated
there at the Pratt Institute. A natural athlete, Bill Williams was a
professional swimmer who broke into the entertainment business
combining his swimming and dancing skills performing in aquatic
underwater shows. Gaining experience as a performer in vaudeville and
stock shows (both here and England), he started appearing in extra or
bit parts in films following WWII army duty. He made his debut in
Murder in the Blue Room (1944)
and could be glimpsed here and there as various student, soldier or
rookie types for the first couple of years.
By the time the war ended, RKO Pictures had him under contract and gave
him co-star billing in such promising entries as
Till the End of Time (1946)
in which he played Robert Mitchum's ex-GI
buddy, and the film noir piece
Deadline at Dawn (1946) as a
sailor who gets tangled up with both murder and lovelies
Susan Hayward and
Lola Lane. In 1945 fellow RKO
actress Barbara Hale asked the director of West of the Pecos (1945), Edward Killy, to hire Bill so they could spend time together (see Barbara Hale's personal quotes).
They married a year later and went on to co-star together in the light
comedy A Likely Story (1947) and
the film noir suspense film
The Clay Pigeon (1949). They
had two daughters and a son.
Bill was a reliable "nice guy" lead and second lead. While he showed
steady improvement and likability in films, he had a difficult time
rising above the benign "B" adventure material he was shoehorned into
playing
(Fighting Man of the Plains (1949),
Rookie Fireman (1950),
The Cariboo Trail (1950), to
name a few). In the early '50s he started checking out the relatively
new medium of TV as a viable means of employment. He scored big with
the kiddies as the title hero in the syndicated
The Adventures of Kit Carson (1951),
which ran for three seasons, and later shifted to lighter, less
strenuous work as Betty White's
hubby in the promising but short-lived domestic comedy
Date with the Angels (1957).
In 1960 he returned to his watery roots with the "Sea Hunt" inspired
adventure Assignment: Underwater (1960) but the program was
short-lived. He also appeared in guest assignments in such popular TV
shows as "Rawhide," "77 Sunset Strip," and "Hawaiian Eye," not to
mention multiple episodes of wife Barbara's series "Perry Mason," in
which she co-starred as girl Friday Della Street.
While Bill continued to perform throughout the 1970s and into the early
'80s in character roles, he was seen less and less as his interest
waned. Bill and Barbara did appear together in the films
Buckskin (1968) and
The Giant Spider Invasion (1975),
as well as occasionally on TV. Their middle child, son
William Katt, a blond stunner who went on
to fame in the movie Carrie (1976) and the
weekly series spoof
The Greatest American Hero (1981),
obviously got his incredibly good looks from his dad. Bill died of a
brain tumor in 1992.