Bill Williams

Actor

About

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Also Known As

Herman Katt, William Herman Katt, William H Katt, Bill Macwilliams

Birth Place

Brooklyn, New York, USA

Born

May 15, 1915

Died

September 21, 1992

Biography

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Blond stalwart of film and TV. Williams' all-American good looks usually led to him being cast in good-guy leads or second leads, sometimes opposite wife Barbara Hale. RKO groomed the boyish actor for stardom in the immediate postwar period, but despite the popular and critical success of "Till the End of Time" (1946), a story of returning WWII veterans, Williams was soon playing in mode...

Filmography

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There Goes My Baby (1994)

Goldie and the Boxer Go to Hollywood (1981)

Moon Over the Alley (1980)

Killer of Sheep (1979)

A Fire In The Sky (1978)

The Giant Spider Invasion (1975)

Photos & Videos

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Clay Pigeon, The (1949) -- (Movie Clip) They Should've Let Him Die

Clay Pigeon, The (1949) -- (Movie Clip) Only Man In The Navy

Family & Companions

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Barbara Hale

Wife

Actor. Married c. 1946; survived him.

Biography

Blond stalwart of film and TV. Williams' all-American good looks usually led to him being cast in good-guy leads or second leads, sometimes opposite wife Barbara Hale. RKO groomed the boyish actor for stardom in the immediate postwar period, but despite the popular and critical success of "Till the End of Time" (1946), a story of returning WWII veterans, Williams was soon playing in modestly budgeted action pictures and crime dramas. He was best known for the title role of the syndicated 1950s TV series, "The Adventures of Kit Carson," in which the frontier scout was teamed up with Mexican sidekick El Toro (Don Diamond). Williams also had leading roles in another syndicated adventure series, "Assignment Underwater," and the sitcom "Date with the Angels," in which he played the husband of Betty White. He made guest appearances on a wide variety of TV series including "M Squad," "The Millionaire," "The Lawman," "77 Sunset Strip," "The Wild, Wild West," "Lassie," "Dragnet," "Marcus Welby, M.D.," and "Adam-12." Williams' many feature credits include "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" (1944), "Deadline at Dawn" (1946), "The Stratton Story" (1949), Frank Tashlin's "Son of Paleface" (1952) and Howard Hawks' "Rio Lobo" (1970).

Filmography

Cast (Feature Film)

There Goes My Baby (1994)

Goldie and the Boxer Go to Hollywood (1981)

Moon Over the Alley (1980)

Killer of Sheep (1979)

A Fire In The Sky (1978)

The Giant Spider Invasion (1975)

The Phantom of Hollywood (1974)

Drive, He Said (1971)

Scandalous John (1971)

Rio Lobo (1970)

Sheriff Pat Cronin

The Divorcee (1969)

Buckskin (1968)

Tickle Me (1965)

Deputy Sturdivant

Spaceflight IC-1 (1965)

Capt. Mead Ralston

The Hallelujah Trail (1965)

Brady, cavalry trooper

Law of the Lawless (1964)

The Scarface Mob (1962)

Martin Flaherty

The Sergeant Was a Lady (1961)

Hell to Eternity (1960)

Oklahoma Territory (1960)

A Dog's Best Friend (1960)

Alaska Passage (1959)

Space Master X-7 (1958)

Legion of the Doomed (1958)

Lt. Smith, also known as Hayward

The Halliday Brand (1957)

The Storm Rider (1957)

Sheriff Pete Coulton

Slim Carter (1957)

The Hired Gun (1957)

The Wild Dakotas (1956)

The Broken Star (1956)

Deputy Bill Gentry

Chief Crazy Horse (1955)

Hell's Horizon (1955)

Apache Ambush (1955)

Wiretapper (1955)

The Outlaw's Daughter (1954)

Jess Raidley, also known as Big Red

Racing Blood (1954)

Torpedo Alley (1953)

The Pace That Thrills (1952)

"Dusty" Dick L. Weston

Son of Paleface (1952)

Rose of Cimarron (1952)

Bronco Buster (1952)

Footlight Varieties (1951)

The Last Outpost (1951)

Havana Rose (1951)

Blue Blood (1951)

The Great Missouri Raid (1951)

California Passage (1950)

Blue Grass of Kentucky (1950)

Rookie Fireman (1950)

Operation Haylift (1950)

The Cariboo Trail (1950)

Range Justice (1949)

Fighting Man of the Plains (1949)

The Clay Pigeon (1949)

A Dangerous Profession (1949)

Claude Brackett

A Woman's Secret (1949)

The Stratton Story (1949)

Yes Sir, That's My Baby (1949)

A Likely Story (1947)

Nora Prentiss (1947)

Deadline at Dawn (1946)

Till the End of Time (1946)

Perry Kincheloe

Sing Your Way Home (1945)

Johnny Angel (1945)

Those Endearing Young Charms (1945)

West of the Pecos (1945)

The Body Snatcher (1945)

Back to Bataan (1945)

Zombies on Broadway (1945)

Jack, the sailor

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)

Murder in the Blue Room (1944)

Larry [Dearden]

Two Fisted Sheriff (1937)

The Best Man Wins (1935)

King Kong (1933)

The Last Man (1932)

Cinematography (Feature Film)

The Man You Loved To Hate (1979)

Camera Assistant

Carefree (1938)

2nd unit Photographer

The Gay Divorcee (1934)

Cooperated on Photographer

Editing (Feature Film)

Past Tense (1994)

Assistant Editor

The Unnamable II (1993)

Alligator (1980)

Assistant Editor

Music (Feature Film)

The Villain (1979)

Dance (Feature Film)

Pulsebeat (1984)

Sound (Feature Film)

Number One With a Bullet (1987)

Casting (Feature Film)

The Sex O'Clock News (1986)

Special Thanks (Feature Film)

A Kid in King Arthur's Court (1995)

Special Thanks To

Producer (Special)

Tennessee Ernie Ford's White Christmas (1972)

Executive Producer

The Boots Randolph Show (1972)

The Nashville Sound of Boots Randolph (1971)

Editing (Special)

The Eyes of the Panther (1989)

Assistant Editor

Visual Effects (Special)

Willie Nelson at the Swap Shop: A Live Album (1992)

Sound (Special)

Terror in Space (1998)

Sound Recordist

Film Production - Main (Special)

The 23rd Annual Dove Awards (1992)

Production Coordinator

Loretta Lynn: The Seasons of My Life (1992)

Technical Director

Emmylou at the Ryman (1992)

Technical Director

The Door Is Always Open (1985)

Technical Director

The 10th Anniversary Johnny Cash Christmas Special (1985)

Technical Director

Country Comes Home (1984)

Technical Director

Misc. Crew (Special)

Greatest Space Explorer: Hubble Telescope (2000)

Farrah Fawcett: America's Angel (1999)

Vietnam: Missing in Action (1999)

Super Structures of the World (1997)

Life Events

1944

Film acting debut in "Murder in the Blue Room", a musical mystery movie

1946

Starred with Hale in "A Likely Story", a comic gangster film

1949

Starred with Hale in "The Clay Pigeon"

1951

Starred in the popular syndicated TV series, "The Adventures of Kit Carson"

Photo Collections

A Dangerous Profession - Lobby Card Set

Here is a set of Lobby Cards from RKO's A Dangerous Profession (1949), starring George Raft and Pat O'Brien. Lobby Cards were 11" x 14" posters that came in sets of 8. As the name implies, they were most often displayed in movie theater lobbies, to advertise current or coming attractions.

Videos

Clay Pigeon, The (1949) -- (Movie Clip) They Should've Let Him Die That’s the old Long Beach Naval Hospital at East 7th St. and Bellflower (site of the VA Hospital now), as we meet Bill Williams as hospitalized Seaman Jim Fletcher, Harold Landon a blind comrade, Ann Doran the nurse and Frank Wilcox the doctor, opening The Clay Pigeon, 1949, from director Richard Fleischer and writer Carl Foreman.

Clay Pigeon, The (1949) -- (Movie Clip) Only Man In The Navy As TCM’s Eddie Muller has noted, just about all viewers would have known that Bill Williams (as Jim, the partial-amnesiac hospital-escapee and suspected traitor sailor) and Barbara Hale (as Martha), who meet here, were husband and wife off screen; good thing and well-played by director Richard Fleischer, in The Clay Pigeon, 1949.

Clay Pigeon, The (1949) -- (Movie Clip) A Shock Of Some Sort The two goons, motives unknown, have just run fugitive amnesiac sailor Jim (Bill Williams) and Martha (Barbara Hale), his hostage, and the widow of the fellow POW who’s death he’s suspected of causing, off the road, and ensuing events incline her to reconsider his story, in The Clay Pigeon, 1949.

Deadline At Dawn (1946) -- (Movie Clip) It Rhymes With Moon Savvy New York taxi-dancer June (Susan Hayward) has volunteered to accompany small-town on-leave sailor Alex (Bill Williams) as he tries to return a bundle of cash he thinks he must have stolen while drunk, in Deadline At Dawn, 1946, from a Cornell Woolrich story.

Deadline At Dawn (1946) -- (Movie Clip) Let's Melt Some Ice Together Sailor Alex (Bill Williams), secretly afraid he’s committed a murder while drunk, is reluctant to part with kindly cabbie Gus (Paul Lukas), but meets taxi-dancer June (Susan Hayward) back at the scene, both discovering they still haven’t found evidence clearing him, in Deadline At Dawn, 1946.

Cariboo Trail, The (1950) -- (Movie Clip) I Rassled A Grizzly Once Gabby Hayes introduces and ingratiates himself as prospector Grizzly, welcoming rancher-prospectors Redfern (Randolph Scott) and Mike (Bill Williams) and cook Ling (Lee Tung Foo) from Montana to British Columbia, early in Twentieth Century-Fox’s The Cariboo Trail, 1950.

Cariboo Trail, The (1950) -- (Movie Clip) A Man With A Dream Of Cattle Much is accomplished in director Edwin L. Marin’s opening, Canadian history, and the introduction of Randolph Scott as Redfern and Bill Williams as disgruntled Mike, the ubiquitous Lee Tung Foo their cook, in the restored print of the Nat Holt Cinecolor Western The Cariboo Trail, 1950.

Rio Lobo -- (Movie Clip) Got A Warrant Right Here Writer George Plimpton here as gunman "George," during his "try everything" phase, as McNally (John Wayne), Cronin (Bill Williams) and Cordona (Jorge Rivero) prevent the arrest of Shasta (Jennifer O'Neill), in Howard Hawks Rio Lobo, 1970.

Deadline At Dawn (1946) -- (Movie Clip) Marry John Barrymore Hung-over on-leave sailor Alex (Bill Williams) in Manhattan, having awakened not knowing how he got $1,400 in cash, meets taxi-dancer June (Susan Hayward) who's been dealing with a client (Edgar Caldwell) and a bouncer (Edward Gargan), in Deadline At Dawn, 1946.

Giant Spider Invasion, The -- (Movie Clip) Pool Hall Dutch (Bill Williams, spouse of leading lady Barbara Hale) leads an armed band of Wisconsin rednecks from a pool hall in The Giant Spider Invasion, 1975.

Dangerous Profession, A - (Original Trailer) A bail bondsman (George Raft) is asked to raise money to free his ex-girlfriend's husband. It's A Dangerous Profession (1949).

Pace That Thrills, The - (Original Trailer) Motorcycle racing provides The Pace That Thrills (1952) starring Bill Williams, Robert Armstrong and Frank McHugh.

Oklahoma Territory - (Textless Trailer) A railroad agent frames a Cherokee chief for murder to justify a land grab in Oklahoma Territory (1960).

Tickle Me - (Original Trailer) Elvis battles monsters in a Western ghost town in the light-hearted musical Tickle Me (1965).

Hell to Eternity - (Original Trailer) A young man adopted by Japanese-Americans becomes a hero in World War II in Hell to Eternity (1960).

Hallelujah Trail, The - (Original Trailer) Indians, soldiers and temperance women fight to control a wagon train hauling whiskey along The Hallelujah Trail (1965).

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo - (Original Trailer) General Jimmy Doolittle trains American troops for the first airborne attacks on Japan in Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944).

Back to Bataan - (Original Trailer) A Marine colonel (John Wayne) leads a guerrilla campaign against the Japanese in the Philippines in Back to Bataan (1945).

Johnny Angel - (Original Trailer) George Raft plays a sailor who sets out to get the guys who murdered his father in Johnny Angel (1945).

Family

William Katt

Son

Actor. Survived him; best known for essaying the title role of the comic adventure series "The Greatest American Hero".

Jody Katt Coulter

Daughter

Survived him.

Nita Katt King

Daughter

Survived him.

Companions

Barbara Hale

Wife

Actor. Married c. 1946; survived him.

Bibliography

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