Rhys Williams (Welsh actor)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Rhys Williams (December 31, 1897 – May 28, 1969) was a Welsh character actor in movies and television, whose career spanned several decades.
He presented a brawny appearance and often played "tough guys" of one kind or another.
He made his film debut in How Green Was My Valley (1941). This movie takes place in rural Wales with a large cast of Welsh characters, but was actually filmed in Hollywood with a cast of English, Irish, Scottish and American actors. Williams, the only genuine Welshman in the cast, was originally hired solely to coach the actors in their Welsh accents; ultimately director John Ford gave Williams a role in the film.
He is recognizable to fans of the TV series Adventures of Superman as a sadistic character in an early episode called "The Evil Three" (1952). His other television appearances were on such programs as CBS's anthology The Lloyd Bridges Show as "Fred" in the 1963 episode "The Ramp". His later appearances were on Temple Houston, 77 Sunset Strip, the NBC version of John F. Kennedy's Profiles in Courage in the episode on Anne Hutchinson, The Wild, Wild West, Twelve O'Clock High, The F.B.I., Mission: Impossible, Here Come the Brides, Mannix, and The Andy Griffith Show.
Williams is buried at Forest Lawn-Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles.
