User:OleJoe1942/sandbox

Adam Williams (1922-2006) was an American movie and television actor and occasional TV script writer who was active in movies and television from 1951 to 1978, appearing in over 100 movies and TV shows during this period.

Background
Adam Williams was born Adam William Berg in Ozone Park, Queens, New York City, New York on 26 November 1922 the eldest of four children of Adam Louis Berg (1900-1976), a real estate agent, and Ethel (nee Cappé) Berg (1903-????). He was raised and attended school in New York City.

Adam Berg served as a pilot in the South Pacific with the United States Navy during World War II and was awarded the Navy Cross, the nation's second highest military decoration, for valor. The citation reads: The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Lieutenant, Junior Grade Adam William Berg (NSN: 0-278522), United States Naval Reserve, for extraordinary heroism in operations against the enemy while serving as Pilot of a carrier-based Navy Dive Bomber in Bombing Squadron FOURTEEN (VB-14), attached to the U.S.S. WASP (CV-18), in action against the enemy fleet in the vicinity of the East Philippine Sea on 20 June 1944. Lieutenant, Junior Grade, Berg's attack against an enemy fleet oiler was pressed home to a low altitude with determination and skill in the face of intense and accurate anti-aircraft fire. He scored direct hits with his bombs and contributed heavily to the destruction of the enemy ship. During retirement his excellent airmanship and coolness were instrumental in frustrating enemy fighters which made repeated attacks against his division. While returning to his own forces, his fuel exhausted, and he was forced to make a water landing in complete darkness. Both he and his air crewman escaped injury and were eventually rescued. His courage and skill were at all times in keeping with the highest traditions of the Naval Service.

By the late 1940s, Adam Berg was living in Los Angeles, California . He and actress Marilee Phelps both listed their occupations as stage actors when they married in Los Angeles on 21 May 1949 . He was working as a soda jerk in a Los Angeles Thrifty Drug Store (according to news items) when Producer Robert Stillman discovered him and cast him, as Adam Williams, to play the lead in the "High Diver" segment of Queen for a Day  , based on the radio program that was popular at that time. His second role was one close to his Naval experience during World War II, cast as a Marine Corps pilot in the 1951 movie Flying Leathernecks , starring John Wayne. Ironicallly, he had been turned down for an earlier movie role as a Naval officer because he had been told that he did not look the part. In Erskine Johnson's syndicated column "In Hollywood" of 1 February 1951, Mr. Johnson discussed the second jobs of actors appearing in Flying Leathernecks, and he reported that Adam Williams worked as a soda jerk between movie assignments. Adam Williams and his wife Marilee Phelps were two of several actors cast in the short film Benjy, directed by future Academy Award-wining director Fred Zinnemann, that would go on to win the 1952 Academy Award for best documentary short subject.

Next came what would be his best role as an actor and the only time he would be top-billed in a film -- the 1952 police procedural film noir Without Warning! , the first collaboration of the production team of Jules V. Levy (producer), Arthur Gardner (producer), and Arnold Laven (director), who would later form Levy-Gardner-Laven and produce several TV shows that were popular in the 1950s and 1960s. In Without Warning!, Adam Williams played a mild-mannered gardener who kills blonde young women who resemble the wife who deserted him. The movie is known for its location filming in and around downtown Los Angeles, particularly in the area known as Chavez Ravine where Dodger Stadium, home of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, would later be built. Adam Williams' wife Marilee Phelps is featured in the film as an undercover policewoman who the killer takes on a long car ride, and Marilee's father, Lee Phelps (an actor who appeared in over 650 roles between 1917 and 1953, mostly uncredited), as the police coroner, "Doc." This film was long considered lost, but became available on DVD in 2005.

In 1952, Adam Williams started appearing on television in anthology programs like Chevron Theatre, but it would be a year before he would appear in another movie. Hedda Hopper reported in her "Hollywood" column of 3 December 1952 that "Adam Williams, who created quite a sensation as the star of 'Without Warning,' plays a gangster in 'Harness Bull.' After his initial success, Hollywood seems to have forgotten Adam.  He and his wife have been earning their bread and butter by managing an apartment house and addressing envelopes for an advertising firm.  Nice to see him get another film break…" Harness Bull was the title of the Leslie T. White novel that the Levy-Gardner-Levan production team had purchased to be filmed as Vice Squad. It had a larger budget that Without Warning and starred Edward G. Robinson and Paulette Goddard. Several members of the cast of Without Warning appeared in Vice Squad with Adam Williams, including Edward Binns, Harlan Warde, Byron Kane, Charles Tannen, William Boyett,George Eldredge and Adam's father-in-law, Lee Phelps. Adam Williams would continue working with the Levy-Gardner-Levan team throughout his career, including in their 1965 movie The Glory Guys and on television, appearing three times on their The Detectives TV series and six times on their The Rifleman TV series.

===Movie roles  ===

Television roles
Note: "Episode" column: 2.9 indicates Season 2, Episode 9, etc.

Television writing credits
Note: "Episode" column: 2.9 indicates Season 2, Episode 9, etc.