Dick Anthony Williams

Dick Anthony Williams (born Richard Anthony Williams; August 9, 1934 – February 16, 2012)^[1] was an American actor. Williams is known for his starring performances on Broadway in The Poison Tree, What the Wine-Sellers Buy and Black Picture Show. Williams won the 1974 Drama Desk Award for his performance in What the Wine-Sellers Buy, for which he was also nominated for a Tony Award, and was nominated in 1975 for both a Tony and a Drama Desk Award for his performance in Black Picture Show.^[2]

Life and career

Born Richard Anthony Williams in Chicago, Williams was an actor in films and on television.^[3] His best-known film roles include Pretty Tony in The Mack (1973), the limo driver in Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Denzel Washington's father in Mo' Better Blues (1990) and Officer Allen in Edward Scissorhands (1990), and his other film credits include Uptight (1968), The Anderson Tapes (1971), Who Killed Mary What's 'Er Name? (1971), Slaughter's Big Rip-Off (1973), Five on the Black Hand Side (1973), Deadly Hero (1976), The Deep (1977), An Almost Perfect Affair (1979), The Jerk (1979), The Night the City Screamed (1980), The Star Chamber (1983) and Gardens of Stone (1987). In television, he was a regular on the short-lived post World War II–era ABC primetime soap opera Homefront during the early 1990s. In 1996, he played the father of Larry's assistant Beverley in an episode of The Larry Sanders Show. Williams also starred in the documentary film The Meeting, about two African-American political leaders (Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.) discussing the fate of black people in America. Williams married Gloria Edwards, an actress,^[4] who died in 1988, and he had two children with her.

Death

Williams died on February 16, 2012 at Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys, California, after a long illness.^[5]

References

External links

• Dick Anthony Williams at the Internet Broadway Database
  
• Dick Anthony Williams at the Internet Movie Database