The acting world lost a TV veteran as Hal Williams’ manager announced his death on July 15 at his home in Rancho, Calif., at 91-years-old. Williams was best known for his role on the classic TV series “Sanford & Son” as Officer “Smitty” Smith in 22 episodes.
The character was part of a duo with Howard Platt’s Officer “Hoppy” Hopkins. The pair had a recurring bit in which Hopkins would lead by outlining a case with complicated police jargon, and it would be up to Smith to spell it all out again in layman’s terms.
This duo led to many laughs as Williams describes the partnership as genuine, which led to audience enjoyment from the viewers, “Because the humor was so real and wasn’t artificial, and it was just generally funny, funny, funny, one laugh after another all the time,” he told the hosts of WKYC.
He continued, “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,” he said. After they did their routine in their first or second episode, “It clicked.”
Williams admitted that most, if not all, the jokes were created on the spot as Redd Foxx preferred working off a live audience and didn’t want to rehearse during the week when there wasn’t one. “Some days we would come to rehearsal, they didn’t have anything,” he remembered. “They would tell them, ‘Fellas, go out and take a break for 2 hours and bring us something back.’”
Williams also starred on the show “227” from 1985 to 1990. The show followed a group of middle-aged tenants living together in an apartment building. Williams starred as Lester Jenkins, who, in the show, was husband to Marla Gibbs’ character, Mary Jenkins, and father to Regina King’s Brenda Jenkins. “227” aired for five seasons on NBC.
Williams’ other TV credits include “On the Rocks,” “The Waltons,” “Private Benjamin” and “The Sinbad Show.” His most recent TV role was on CBS’ “Matlock” remake. On the film side, Williams appeared in “Hardcore,” “The Rookie,” “Percy & Thunder,” “Guess Who” and “Flight.”
