Clarence Williams III
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The ThumbScore for Clarence Williams III (71.0%) is the average audience approval rating across 5 films. Each movie's ThumbScore represents the percentage of real audiences who rated it positively. A higher score means more of Clarence's films are well-received by everyday viewers.
Clarence Williams III (August 21, 1939 – June 4, 2021) was an American actor. He was best known for his starring role as Linc Hayes on the television series The Mod Squad (1968-73). He also appeared in films such as Purple Rain, 52 Pick-Up, Tales from the Hood, Hoodlum, Deep Cover, Half Baked, Life, American Gangster, and Reindeer Games, and was a Tony Award-nominated stage actor.
Born in New York City, Williams was the son of a professional musician, Clarence "Clay" Williams Jr., and grandson of jazz and blues composer/pianist Clarence Williams and his singer-actress wife, Eva Taylor. Raised by his paternal grandmother, he became interested in acting after accidentally walking onto a stage at a theater below a Harlem YMCA. During the late 1950s, Williams served two years in the United States Army, as a paratrooper in C Company, 506th Infantry, of the 101st Airborne Division.
Williams first appeared on Broadway in The Long Dream (1960). Continuing his work on stage, he appeared in Walk in Darkness (1963), Sarah and the Sax (1964), Doubletalk (1964), and King John. His breakout theatrical role was in William Hanley's Slow Dance on the Killing Ground, for which he received a Tony Award nomination.
The New York Times drama critic Howard Taubman wrote of his performance, "Mr. Williams glides like a dancer, giving his long, fraudulently airy speeches the inner rhythms of fear and showing the nakedness of terror when he ceases to pretend." He also served as artist-in-residence at Brandeis University in 1966. Williams' breakout television role was as undercover cop Linc Hayes on the popular ABC counterculture police television series The Mod Squad (1968), along with fellow relative unknowns Michael Cole and Peggy Lipton. After the series ended in 1973, he worked in a variety of genres on stage and screen, from comedy (I'm Gonna Git You Sucka, Half-Baked) to sci-fi (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), and drama (Purple Rain).
Born 1939-08-21 in New York City, New York, USA. Died 2021-06-04.
On ThumbScore, Clarence Williams III appears in 5 films with an average audience score of 71.0%, most frequently in the Crime genre.
