Hal Williams played counter-stereotypical roles as friendly cop Officer Smitty in “Sanford and Son” and patriarch Lester Jenkins in “227.”
Hal Williams, the veteran actor best known for roles on “Sanford and Son” and “227,” has died. He was 91.
Williams died the morning of Wednesday, July 15, at his home in Rancho Mirage, California, his representative told Deadline. USA TODAY has reached out to Williams’ reps.
Williams’ most famous role was starring in the Red Foxx and Demond Wilson-led series as Officer “Smitty” Smith, a notably friendly Los Angeles Police Department cop who has a recurring bit translating his partner, Officer Hoppy’s (Howard Platt) police speak into plain language and slang for Fred and Lamont Sanford. He returned to the role for NBC’s spinoff “Sanford” in 1980.
“We did it one time in rehearsal, and the producers thought it was funny, so the writers started asking us to bring [them] stuff that was current,” Williams told WKYC Cleveland days before his death. “And so that Hoppy, and Swanny before Hoppy, would be very official about it, and then I would interpret because Red and Demond didn’t know what he was talking about.”
A decade later, he would play Lester Jenkins, another counter-stereotypical role as the steady high school sweetheart of Marla Gibbs‘ Mary and present father of Regina King’s Brenda on “227.” He originally met Gibbs while cast in guest roles on “The Jeffersons,” her breakout role, before he was cast in the 1985 comedy. He would tell “Today” during a 2020 reunion that the show “set the bar a little higher because it was a totally intact family.”
Born in Columbus, Ohio, Williams got his start in Ohio theater productions before moving to Hollywood in 1968 and becoming a regular television presence. He went on to be cast in dramas, including “The Waltons” (1972) and “Roots: The Next Generations” (1979), as well as consistent comedy appearances, including the comedy “On the Rocks” (1975), and guest appearances on “Good Times” in the 1970s and “Private Benjamin,” as Sgt. L.C. Ross, following his role in the 1980 film of the same name. By 1993, he continued his comedy career in “The Sinbad Show” as Rudy Bryan.
He also occasionally starred in films, including 1979’s “Hardcore,” 1982’s “The Escape Artist,” “The Rookie” with Clint Eastwood in 1990, the 2005 movie “Guess Who” with Bernie Mac and Ashton Kutcher and “Flight” as Denzel Washington’s offscreen father in the 2012 film.
In addition to dozens of TV movies, he also made a handful of guest appearances in “The New Dick Van Dyke Show,” “Knots Landing,” “The Dukes of Hazzard,” “S.W.A.T.,” “Webster,” “Magnum P.I.,” “Tales from the Crypt,” “Moesha,” “Parks and Recreation,” and, most recently, “Matlock.”
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