Maybe You Don't Recognize the Name, But You'll Know Hal Williams

[Zoneboy]

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Hal Williams is kicking back at Big Mama's Soul Food in Cathedral City, wearing blue jeans and a loose-fitting black shirt with yellow flowers.


This is the kind of semi-retirement Williams, one of the seminal African-American actors of the early days of integrated television, couldn't dream of while growing up in Columbus, Ohio.

Williams, who turns 70 in December, eats at Big Mama's every week because he likes it and because its owner, Don Webster, was his trainer at Palm Valley Country Club in Palm Desert.

“I've been living here almost 20 years,” says Williams, who moved temporarily to Kauai in 1998. “I wasn't looking for work until 2004. Then I decided I wasn't going to be a beach bum after all. I realized, I'm in a profession where I don't have to retire.”

Williams was just seen in the Hallmark TV movie “Generation Gap” with Ed Asner, Rue McClanahan and fellow desert resident Ralph Waite.

His next film, “Snow 2: Santa Who,” with Tom Cavanagh, airs Dec. 14 on the ABC Family Channel as part of its 25 Days of Christmas.

He shot that comedy about Santa Claus' reluctant heir last winter in Alberta, Canada. It made Williams appreciate his desert lifestyle more than ever.

“I grew up in Ohio where it's cold,” he said. “But I have never been that damn cold.

“One night, I was chasing a reindeer at 2:30 in the morning and it was 39 below zero. They had to shut down the camera crew for two days because the machinery wouldn't work. Man, that was too much.”

As long as Williams can return to the Coachella Valley for four months, shoot another movie on location, and then return to the desert for four more months, he'll continue to work.

“I could do movies for the rest of my career,” he said. “As far as doing a series, I don't want to leave the valley that long because that means I would have to have an apartment in L.A., maybe come home for a day and go back Sunday. Nah, movies and guest shots on TV. That's the plan.”

Changing times

Williams is best known to TV audiences under 40 as the co-star of the late 1980s series, “227.” To those over 40, he's Smitty the cop from “Sanford and Son.”

But Williams was one of the first African American actors to follow the path pioneered by Bill Cosby and Diahann Carroll toward TV careers.

His first TV credit was for “That Girl” in 1970, a decade after singing legend Nat “King” Cole couldn't find a sponsor for his variety show. In the following decade, Williams appeared in many landmark black TV shows, including “Roots,” “Good Times,” “The Jeffersons” and “What's Happening.”

Today, African Americans have more opportunities to make big money than they did when he was coming up, he says. “These kids have wonderful opportunities now and I think a lot of that came because of the rappers,” Williams said. “The era of the big studio is over, except they still hold on to the syndication ties and the networks. These young kids have a tremendous opportunity to produce - to sit down, write a script, take it somewhere and get it done.

“Will Smith and Ice Cube were the first to make money. I think Mos Def is the best (actor) of them all. Ludacris is good commercially. P. Diddy, he's got a lot of money and has his fingers in a lot of pies. He's more of an entrepreneur.”

Things have changed so much, Williams says, just two years ago he couldn't have imagined a black man being elected president.

“I turned on the television (on election night) and I couldn't believe it,” he said. “When they showed Australia and Germany and Kenya and Spain, I said, ‘I'll be damned. I never thought I'd see this.'”



Williams' favorite roles


“227” (1985-1990, NBC): Williams co-starred as Marla Gibbs' husband, Lester.
“We did it as a play in Marla's theater. (Television executives) Norman Lear and Brandon Tartikoff came to see the play and, in the transition between the play and television, they killed (my character) off. They didn't want Marla to have a husband. She said, ‘I don't want to be another strong black woman raising kids by herself. I want to have a husband with a decent job taking care of his family.' So that's how that happened.”
Favorite episode: When Gibbs' character, Florence, has to spend their anniversary weekend on jury duty, sequestered in a hotel. Lester had sworn they'd spend their anniversary together, so he dresses up as a woman to get into the area for female jury members. “I was so vehemently opposed to coming out in my drawers (they didn't think) I would agree to dress up like a woman. But I did. I said, ‘How are you going to pass off this ugly-ass face and this big mustache? Because I am not shaving this mustache.' So, They put a veil over my face. High heels and panty hose, a black purse and this funny hat that had a big veil hanging over it. It was a fun show.”


“PRIVATE BENJAMIN” (1980 Warner Bros. film): Starring Goldie Hawn and Eileen Brennan. Williams was featured as Sgt. Ross. He reprised his character in the 1981-83 CBS series.
“I worked on that film at Fort MacArthur (Air Force Base in San Pedro) for eight weeks. They thought I was a real drill sergeant on loan from the military because I had a real good adviser. I never had anything to do with anybody except when I chastised them. I was never out of character. When we broke and they were going overseas to Europe to shoot the second part of the film, I told everybody I was an actor. They were tripped out.”

“SANFORD AND SON” (1972-1977, NBC): Starring Redd Foxx. Williams had a recurring role as Smitty, a black cop partnered with Hoppy the white cop.
“Normally you have a guy who warms up the audience and tells jokes. A couple times they had Redd come out. And he started doing his blue stuff. People in the front row turned red! They didn't know what to do. They came to see ‘Sanford,' he gave them Redd Foxx.”
Favorite episode: When Grady, played by Whitman Mayo, pulls some marijuana from his garden thinking it's parsley. “Grady invites me and (Hoppy) for dinner and he's putting a salad together. He goes out and pulls up all this stuff and throws it in this bowl. The audience just keeps laughing through the whole thing because, when we leave there, we're rolling.”

“GUESS WHO” (2005, Columbia theatrical release): Bernie Mac and Ashton Kutcher starred. Williams played Mac's father in this African-American twist on “Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.”
“I worked on that movie for four months. They cut all my stuff except the dinner scene. What they ended up trying to do was make Bernie and Ashton the focal point of the whole film. They took the guts out of it. It started being a game of one-upsmanship, throwing barbs at one another. After a while, it gets boring. They had a nice whole film when we shot it.”

“That Girl” (1966-1971, ABC). Williams had a recurring role as an office worker after doing an earlier bit part.“My very first role was on ‘That Girl.' I played a court reporter. She's defending herself in court because she's read up on some Latin law term. She's demonstrating something about her case and when she walks away her dress gets caught on my tape and pulls the tape all the way across the damn courtroom. I look up and say, ‘Your honor!' “That's how I got the job as a recurring character. I worked with Teddy Bessell and Marlo Thomas. Unfortunately, it was the second half of the season when they canceled the show.

"Harry O” (1973-1976, ABC), starring David Janssen. Williams played a detective in one season and a mechanic in another.“I was under contract to Warner Bros. They wanted to do a pilot about a black family in the old West. I did that with this lady who just passed away, Mae Mercer, and you know, it's pay or play. They're not going to pay you and let you sit home (waiting for an order to make a series). So, I did two ‘Kung Fu's' and then I went to ‘Harry O.' Henry Darrow and I played detectives and Harry would always come into the police station and get information. Then they decided the second year to shoot the show in Malibu. Harry was going to another town to be a private eye. So, they made me his mechanic. He had a sports car and I was the mechanic, named Clarence, that he never paid.

“The Waltons” (1973-1980). Williams had a recurring role as Harley Foster. “Goody two-shoes all around, but it was a wonderful show. I got more opportunities to do what I call quality work on ‘The Waltons' than any other place I worked because it was a straight dramatic role and most people just know me from sitcoms.

"On the Rocks” (1975-76, ABC). Jose Perez starred for director John Rich in a prison comedy in which Williams played a prisoner named DeMott.“It was a tragedy that ‘On the Rocks' didn't make it. They called us funny cops and funny robbers. We preceded ‘Barney Miller.' We did very well the first year (but) Rich and Perez were at odds because Perez wanted to play a militant prisoner and they refused to work with each other. Then the PTA started writing in saying we were making prison seem like a funny place to be. And that killed us.”

“The Sinbad Show” (1993-1994, Fox). Starring Sinbad. Williams played his father.“He got a bad taste in his mouth about TV because they changed the format of his show. He was a single parent with two kids, and Nancy Wilson and myself played his parents. But the second season, they wanted him to be a comedian in a nightclub — no family, no nothing — and he wouldn't do it. He did a movie called

“The Cherokee Kid,” which I did with him. He has tremendous family values. His father is a minister and his mother and father are usually out in the audience when he does specials. He wanted to establish an honest black family raising the children the right way. So he objected to them killing the format he had established.”

[comedyfreak]

That was an interesting read, now I know what he's been up to.

[JT]

Very interesting indeed. Nice to know that he's in good shape and still working. He's one person that I never really heard much recent information about.

[Marvo301]

I remember watching Hal Williams on Private Benjamin, 227, and The Sinbad Show. Thanks for the update on this great sitcom actor. I also remember seeing him in his recurring role as Harley Foster on The Waltons.

[catlover79]

He also did a fantastic guest role on a Gunsmoke episode entitled "Hard Labor", playing the indentured servant/slave/cook of a silver mine. Ironically, this episode had him appearing opposite another Sanford & Son semi-regualr, Gregory Sierra!! Glad to hear Mr. Williams is doing well. Thanks to Charles for posting the article!!