Adam Williams gives supporting villains a cold, physical menace that makes the danger credible. We value his work in thrillers, though his repeated casting as a threat leaves fewer chances to see what else he could do.
Fi1m perspective
Cary Grant makes panic funny in North by Northwest (1959), but the men pursuing him still have to be frightening. As the henchman Valerian, Adam Williams gives the danger a blunt physical presence. His coldness is useful in a film whose leading man can make distress so entertaining. Alfred Hitchcock allows us to enjoy the chase without making its villains harmless. Williams contributes to that balance, even when our attention is elsewhere.
The casting settled early: a leading role as a serial killer in 1952 was followed by supporting antagonists in thrillers, war films and Westerns. The psychiatrist Dr. Brown in Fear Strikes Out (1957) offered a less threatening use of his authority. A lead as Dave Brewster in The Space Children (1958) also complicates the idea that he only ever stood behind somebody else's villain. From the late 1950s, television anthology programmes and Westerns supplied frequent work. Those exceptions to the villainous parts are worth noticing, without pretending that an occasional sympathetic role proves an actor can play anything.
The Big Heat (1953) puts his menace in a harsher setting. Playing Larry Gordon for Fritz Lang, Williams provides a reliable supporting threat in a film given greater force by Gloria Grahame and Lee Marvin. We were disturbed by the criminal violence, which Lang makes feel nasty rather than merely necessary to keep the story moving. The plotting sometimes needs indulgence, and Williams's conviction cannot disguise those conveniences. His contribution is smaller but valuable: the people carrying out the threats need to be convincing, and he is.
There are limits to making a career out of threatening other people, especially when the casting comes to seem automatic. These two films give us sound reasons to value Williams without making extravagant claims for the opportunities he might have deserved. Lang gets a credible participant in the brutality; Hitchcock uses his physical menace to keep a comic chase dangerous. Start with North by Northwest, and spare the henchman a little of the attention Grant so easily keeps.
Biography
Adam Williams (born Adam William Berg) was an American film and television actor. He appeared in supporting roles in numerous films and series from the early 1950s to the late 1970s, often cast as antagonists or heavies.
His film credits include Without Warning! (1952), in which he played the lead; The Big Heat (1953) as Larry Gordon; Fear Strikes Out (1957); The Space Children (1958); and North by Northwest (1959) as Valerian. He also appeared in many television series, including episodes of The Twilight Zone, Perry Mason, Bonanza, The Untouchables and Gunsmoke.
Williams served as a United States Navy pilot during the Second World War and received the Navy Cross. He later owned a flight school and worked as an FAA examiner.
