Fred Williamson

Fred Williamson
Williamson in June 2010
Born	(1938-03-05) March 5, 1938 Gary, Indiana, United States
Occupation(s)	Actor, Director, Producer

Frederick Robert "Fred" Williamson, nicknamed "The Hammer" (born March 5, 1938) is an American actor and former professional American football defensive back who played mainly in the American Football League during the 1960s. He has black belts in: Kenpo, Shotokan Karate, and Tae-Kwon-Do.

Since 1997 Williamson has had a home in Palm Springs, California.

Football career

Fred Williamson

Career information
College:	Northwestern
Position:	Defensive back
Career history
NFL Pittsburgh Steelers AFL Oakland Raiders AFL Kansas City Chiefs
Stats at Pro Football Reference

After playing college football for Northwestern in the late 1950s, he was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Pittsburgh Steelers. When during training camp he was switched to their defense, his attitude over the switch prompted him to play his position with too much aggression, the coach of the 49ers asked him to quit "hammering" his players. The quickly acquired the nickname "The Hammer", and that stuck with him for decades.

Williamson played one year for the Steelers in the National Football League in 1960. Next, he moved to the new American Football League. Williamson played four seasons for the AFL’s Oakland Raiders, making the AFL All-Star team in 1961, 1962, and 1963. He also played three seasons for the AFL’s Kansas City Chiefs.

During his period of playing for the Chiefs, Williamson became one of football’s first self-promoters, nurturing the nickname "The Hammer" because he used his forearm to deliver karate-style blows to the heads of opposing players, especially pass receivers. Before Super Bowl I, Williamson gathered national headlines by boasting that he would knock the Green Bay Packers starting receivers, Carroll Dale and Boyd Dowler, out of the game. He stated "Two hammers to (Boyd) Dowler, one to (Carroll) Dale should be enough". His prediction turned out to be an ironic one because Williamson himself was knocked out of the game in the fourth quarter, with his head meeting the knee of the Packers' running back Donny Anderson and later suffered a broken arm when Chiefs linebacker Sherrill Headrick fell on him. Williamson finished his eight-season pro football career in 1967 with a history of many hard tackles, passes knocked away, and 36 pass interceptions in 104 games. Williamson returned his interceptions for 479 yards and two touchdowns. After a short period with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League during the 1968 season, Williamson left from pro football, never to return.

Acting career

Williamson at the Festival de Cine de Sitges in October 2008

Following his retirement from football, Williamson tried his hand as an actor much in the mold of star running back Jim Brown. He also acted alongside Mr. Brown in films such as 1974's Three the Hard Way, 1975's Take a Hard Ride, 1982's One Down, Two to Go, 1996's Original Gangstas and 2002's On the Edge, along with guest starring with him in a handful of episodes of various television programs. Before Jim Brown did it in 1974, Fred posed nude for Playgirl magazine in the October 1973 issue. One of Williamson’s early television roles was a part in The Cloud Minders, a 1968 episode of Star Trek, playing "Anka". Williamson also played Diahann Carroll’s love interest in the sitcom Julia. In an interview for the DVD of Bronx Warriors, Williamson stated that the role in Julia was created for him when he convinced the producers that the Black community was upset that Julia had a different boyfriend every week.

Williamson's early film work included roles in 1970, M*A*S*H and Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon. He also got to play, in 1973, an African-American mafioso in Black Caesar and its subsequent sequel, Hell Up in Harlem. He is also noted for portraying "Boss Nigger" in the 1975 blockbuster hit, Boss Nigger. After this he appeared as an actor in several films, most of which are considered to be of the "blaxploitation" genre. In 1974 he starred alongside Peter Boyle and Eli Wallach in the movie Crazy Joe.

In 1974, he was selected by the ABC television network as a commentator on Monday Night Football to replace Don Meredith, who had left (temporarily, as it turned out) to pursue an acting and broadcasting career at rival network NBC. Williamson was used on a few pre-season broadcasts, but he was judged to be unsuitable by ABC. He was relieved of his duties at the beginning of the regular season, becoming the first MNF personality not to endure for an entire season. He was replaced by the fellow former player (and fellow Gary, Indiana, native) Alex Karras.

Since that time, Williamson has continued his career as an actor and director, recently appearing in the 2004 feature film version of the 1970s television series Starsky and Hutch.

During the mid-to-late 1980s and early 1990s, Williamson frequently appeared on television as a spokesman for King Cobra (“Don’t let the smooth taste fool you.”)...as did fellow actor/martial artist Martin Kove. In 1994, Williamson, along with many other black actors from the 'Blaxploitation' movie era (namely Antonio Fargas, Pam Grier, Rudy Ray Moore, and Ron O'Neal) made a cameo appearance on Snoop Doggy Dogg's music video "Doggy Dogg World", where he appears as himself using his pro-football nickname "The Hammer".

Williamson co-starred with George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino in 1996's From Dusk Till Dawn, directed by Robert Rodriguez. He was in the cast of 1978's original The Inglorious Bastards, which inspired Tarantino's 2009 film of a similar name.

Career as a director and producer

Alongside acting, Williamson has since the middle 1970s appeared as a director and producer as well. His first film as a producer was Boss Nigger (1975), a Western directed by Jack Arnold. With the second film he produced he also debuted as a director, Mean Johnny Barrows (1976), was a significant predecessor of the Rambo films with its violent Vietnam vet story, however the novel First Blood (Rambo I) was written in 1972. He has since directed over 20 features.

In the middle of the 1970s, Williamson relocated to Rome, Italy and formed his own company Po' Boy Productions, which started to produce actioners like Adios Amigo (1976) and Death Journey (1976), both of which starred and were directed by Williamson. Although his most recent efforts as director and producer have mainly gone straight to DVD, Williamson has continued working actively with films.

Filmography

• M*A*S*H (1970)
• Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon (1970)
• Hammer (1972)
• The Legend of Nigger Charley (1972)
• The Soul of Nigger Charley (1973)
• Black Caesar (1973)
• Hell Up in Harlem (1973)
• That Man Bolt (1973)
• Three the Hard Way (1974)
• Black Eye (1974)
• Mean Johnny Barrows (1974)
• Crazy Joe (1974)
• Three Tough Guys (1974)
• Bucktown (1975)
• Take a Hard Ride (1975)
• Boss Nigger (1975)
• Adiós Amigo (1976)
• Death Journey (1976)
• Joshua (1976)
• No Way Back (1976)
• Mr. Mean (1977)
• The Inglorious Bastards (1977)
• Blind Rage (1978)
• Fist of Fear, Touch of Death (1980)
• The New Barbarians (1982) aka "Warriors of the Wasteland"
• 1990: The Bronx Warriors (1982)
• One Down,Two To Go (1982)
• Vigilante (1983)
• Warrior of the Lost World (1983)
• Deadly Impact (1984)
• White Fire (1985)
• Fox Trap (1986)
• Black Cobra (1987)
• The Messenger (1987)
• Black Cobra 2 (1988)
• Black Cobra 3 (1990)
• South Beach (1993)
• From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)
• Original Gangstas (1996)
• Ride (1998)
• Carmen: A Hip Hopera (made for TV) (2001)
• Starsky & Hutch (2004)
• Interpolated! (2006)
• Resist Evil Part Two: God is Missing! Let us Quest for God! (2008)
• Resist Evil Part Three: Don't Stop or We'll Die (2008)
• Blending some Green Part 1 (2008)
• Spaced Out (2009)
• Zombie Apocalypse: Redemption (2010)
• Last Ounce of Courage (2012)

See also

• List of American Football League players

External links

• Fred Williamson at IMDb
• Fred Williamson at AllMovie
• Fred Williamson interview about working with Quentin Tarantino, an interview with the Slacker And The Man Podcast.
• Fred Williamson: Original Gangsta, an interview by Michael Mercadante 2006
• Williamson's 1965 Topps football card
• Fred Williamson statistics
• Remembertheafl.com

• Fred Williamson at Memory Alpha