Adam Williams

Adam Williams born Adam William Berg November 26 1922 December 4 2006 was an American film and television actor A veteran bad guy actor of 1950s film and TV he began his career after distinguished World War II military service as a United States Navy pilot for which he received the Navy Cross In 1952 Williams played the lead a Los Angeles woman killer in the film Without Warning In 1953 he was cast as Larry a car bomber in The Big Heat He had a leading role in the 1958 science fiction movie The Space Children Other notable film roles include the psychiatrist in Fear Strikes Out 1957 and Valerian in North by Northwest 1959 During the 1950s and 1960s he appeared on dozens of television series including the syndicated Sheriff of Cochise set in Arizona and starring John Bromfield and Have Gun Will Travel in the episode The Reasonable Man He portrayed private detective and murderer Jason Beckmeyer in the 1957 Perry Mason episode The Case of the Runaway Corpse In 1961 he was cast as Jim Gates in the episode Frontier Week on Joanne Drus sitcom Guestward Ho set on a dude ranch in New Mexico In 1960 he played the role of a sailor hitching a ride in The Twilight Zone season 1 episode The HitchHiker where he is picked up by a terrified driver played by Inger Stevens who is compelled to pick him up so that he may offer protection and safety to her from a mysterious hitchhiker who shows up at various times and places along the road while she travels across country Many reviewers have cited this episode as one of The Twilight Zones 10 Greatest of the series He had also appeared in the Twilight Zone episode A Most Unusual Camera Between 1959 and 1967 he appeared in six episodes of The Rifleman and in four episodes of Bonanza and in 1961 as Adam in A Rope for Charlie Munday in the ABC adventure series The Islanders He was cast as Burley Keller in the 1961 episode The Persecuted of the ABCWarner Brothers western series Lawman He gueststarred in an episode of the 1961 NBC series The Americans based on family conflicts stemming from the American Civil War and in an episode of the 1961 series The Asphalt Jungle One of his later roles was in the 1976 television movie Helter Skelter