Background
Born in New York City, New York, Williams was the son of a professional musician Clay Williams, and grandson of jazz and blues composer/pianist Clarence Williams and his singer-actress wife, Eva Taylor.
Born in New York City, New York, Williams was the son of a professional musician Clay Williams, and grandson of jazz and blues composer/pianist Clarence Williams and his singer-actress wife, Eva Taylor.
He is a stage, film and television actor, who occasionally directs. Williams began pursuing an acting career after spending two years in the United States Air Force. Continuing his work on stage, he appeared in Walk in Darkness (1963), Sarah and the Sax (1964), Doubletalk (1964), and King John.
He also served as artist-in-residence at Brandeis University in 1966.
His breakout role was as undercover cop Lincolnshire Hayes on the highly popular counterculture television cop series Mod Squad (1968), along with fellow relative unknowns Michael Cole and Peggy Lipton. Since the series ended in 1973, he has worked in a variety of genres on stage and screen, from comedy (I"m Gonna Git You Sucka.
Half-Baked) to sci-fi (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) and drama (Purple Rain). Spanning over forty years, his career includes a recurring role in the surreal television series Twin Peaks (1990), a good cop in Deep Cover (1992), a rioter in the mini-series Against the Wall (1994), and Wesley Snipes" chemically dependent Dad in Sugar Hill (1993).
Other television roles include Hill Street Blues, the Canadian cult classic The Littlest Hobo, Miami Vice, The Highwayman, Burn Notice, Everybody Hates Chris, Justified, Law & Order, a recurring role as Philby Cross in the Mystery Woman and in movie series on the Hallmark Channel.
He can be seen in movies such as 52 Pick-Up, Life, The Cool World, Deep Cover, Tales from the Hood, Half-Baked, King: A Filmed Record. Montgomery to Memphis, Hoodlum, Frogs for Snakes, Starstruck, The General"s Daughter, Reindeer Games, Impostor, The Legend of 1900, and Purple Rain. He also played a supportive role as George Wallace"s fictional African-American butler and caretaker in the 1997 TNT television movie George Wallace, and as Ellsworth Raymond "Bumpy" Johnson in American Gangster (2007) in an uncredited role.
He also had an uncredited role in Pork Chop Hill (1959).