Hal Williams, ‘227’ Star and ‘Sanford and Son’ Regular, Dies at 91

Veteran actor Hal Williams, who played Officer “Smitty” Smith on the hit 1970s comedy Sanford and Son during a long screen career, died July 15 at his home in Rancho Mirage, CA, according to his representative. He was 91.

via: People

A representative for Williams told Deadline that the actor died on the morning on Wednesday, July 15, at his home in Rancho Mirage, California.

PEOPLE has reached out to a representative for Williams for comment.

Williams, who was born Halroy Candis Williams, was born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1938. Though he would not pursue acting until his 30s, he loved playing pretend at a young age.

“I wasn’t allowed to leave the yard often, and I had a dog named Sandy. I used to play games with him, pretending he was the Lone Ranger and I was Tonto,” he told Columbus Monthly in 2022. 

He worked as a social worker, corrections officer and postal worker, but by 1968, with his marriage failing, he decided to head west to Los Angeles. 

“I sat down after getting divorced and said, ‘What do I really want to try to do before the maker comes and gets me?’ And it was acting. So, I took the plunge and drove to California in 48 hours,” he told Get TV. “I gave myself three years.”

And he made it work. In 1972, he was cast as Officer ‘Smitty’ Smith on Sanford and Son. He appeared in 20 episodes of the beloved sitcom. His character, a police officer, was paired up with Howard Platt’s Officer “Hoppy” Hopkins, who was White and often the butt of the joke. 

From left: Eileen Brennan, Hal Williams and Goldie Hawn in ‘Private Benjamin.’.

“They used to tell us they didn’t have anything to do that week and to go make up some lines,” Williams reminisced about the show in a 2022 interview with Tell-Tale TV. “So I would go with Howard to a hot dog joint or a hamburger place. And we sit in the parking lot. He would want to know how to incorporate Black slang, Black jargon, and stuff.” They’d take what they came up with back to the producers, who’d incorporate it into their scenes. “That was a fun show,” Williams added.

He was also cast on the drama series The Waltons as Harley Foster and on the shorter-lived 1975–76 ABC sitcom On the Rocks; since they were recurring roles, he could balance them at the same time. Later, Williams appeared in the 1980 film Private Benjamin, as well as on the sitcom it inspired, which aired from 1981 to 1983.  

Then in 1985, he was cast alongside Marla Gibbs on 227, a sitcom about the residents of an apartment building in Washington, DC. A young Regina King played their daughter in her first TV role. The show also starred Jackée Harry as Sandra, their younger neighbor. Williams’s character initially didn’t exist, but Gibbs didn’t want to play a single mother. 

“It was a family show that anybody could watch across all color lines,” Williams remembered in a 2011 issue of Entertainment Weekly. 

“Those shows have proven to be my detriment at times,” Williams admitted to Antenna TV in 2019. “People don’t realize that I’m a serious actor. . . . I’ve always tried to keep a foot in both camps, but it’s hard to fight the pigeonholing that goes on. But in all those comedies, you have to remember one thing. I wasn’t the funny guy. I was the straight guy in all the madness.”

Other roles for Williams included appearances on The Sinbad Show, Moesha and A Black Lady Sketch Show. He also appeared in a handful of films, including 1979’s Hardcore, 1990’s The Rookie and 2012’s Flight. 

Looking back on his long career, he told Columbus Monthly, “I’ve prided myself on choosing a profession where you don’t have to stop working. You just get older as you work.”

Williams shared three children with his first wife.