Biography

Born on August 21, 1939, the son of a displaced musician, Harlem-born actor Clarence Williams III was raised by his musical grandparents, the legendary jazz and boogie-woogie composer/pianist Clarence Williams, who wrote such classics as "T'Aint Nobody's Business If I Do" and "Baby, Won't You Please Come Home," and blues singer Eva Taylor. While attending a local YMCA as a teen, Williams became interested in dramatics.

After a two-year hitch with the U.S. Air Force, he started his acting career, making a minor New York stage debut with "The Long Dream" in 1960. He continued impressively with roles in "Walk in Darkness" (1963), "Sarah and the Sax" (1964) and "Doubletalk" (1964), and capped his early career with a Theatre World Award and Tony-nomination for the three-person play "Slow Dance on the Killing Ground" (1964). Continuing on with powerful work in "Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?" (1966) and "King John," Vietnam-era Hollywood finally began to take notice of his "angry young man" charisma.

His casting as former delinquent-turned-undercover cop Linc Hayes on the highly popular TV cop series La nouvelle équipe (1968) along with fellow white partners Michael Cole and Peggy Lipton was a huge break for all three relative unknowns. Sporting a huge Afro, paisley shirts, dark shades and spouting catchprase language like "dig it" and "solid," the gap-toothed Linc (and his mod partners) showed the requisite anti-establishment defiance and coolness to attract the hip generation--while still playing good guys.

Following the series' demise in 1973, he purposely avoided the "blaxploitation" Hollywood scene and returned to the stage, notably on Broadway opposite Maggie Smith in Tom Stoppard's play "Night and Day" (1979). In the 80s he launched an enviable character career in films, often playing a cool, streetwise character or threatening menace. Among his better-known on-screen assignments is the role of Prince's abusive father in Purple Rain (1984), a burnt-out political activist in the spoof I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988), the recurring part of Roger Hardy in the twisted cult TV series Mystères à Twin Peaks (1990), a good-guy cop in Dernière limite (1992), an rioter in the Attica-themed mini-series Les révoltés d'Attica (1994) and Wesley Snipes heroin-addicted dad in Revocator (1994), among others. Powerful roles on such shows as "Law & Order," "Profiler" and "Judging Amy" has kept him strongly in the limelight.

Millennium acting work included solid performances in the films Piège fatal (2000), Ritual (2000), Blue Hill Avenue (2001), The Extreme Team (2003), Constellation (2005), The Blue Hour (2007),Way of War (2009), A Day in the Life (2009), Le majordome (2013) and Mr. Malevolent (2018), as well as his interesting role as mysterious book store manager Philby in the lengthy Roman noir (2003) series of TV movies (2003-2007). Clarence also made guest appearances on TV programs, "Cold Case," "Memphis Beat," "Justified" and "Empire," to name a few.

Wed to wife Kelly until his death, Clarence was first married to actress Gloria Foster (1967-1984). The two appeared together in the movie Harlem Story (1963). Following their divorce, they remained friendly and, upon her death in 2001, it was he who made the formal announcement.

- IMDb mini biography by: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net