Dick Anthony Williams

Who was Dick Anthony Williams?

Dick Anthony Williams was an American actor. Williams is known for his starring performances on Broadway in The Poison Tree, What the Wine-Sellers Buy and Black Picture Show. Williams won the 1974 Drama Desk Award for his performance in What the Wine-Sellers Buy, for which he was also nominated for a Tony Award, and was nominated in 1975 for both a Tony and a Drama Desk Award for his performance in Black Picture Show.

He also had an extensive resume as an actor in films and on television. His best-known film roles include Pretty Tony in The Mack, the easy-going limo driver in Dog Day Afternoon, Denzel Washington's father in Mo' Better Blues and sympathetic Officer Allen in Edward Scissorhands. In television, he was a regular on the short-lived post World War II-era ABC primetime soap opera Homefront Abe Davis during the early 1990s. In 1996, he played the father of Larry's assistant Beverley in an episode of The Larry Sanders Show.

Williams married Gloria Edwards, an actress, who died in 1988, and he had two children with her.

Williams also starred in a documentary film "The Meeting", about two African-American political leaders discussing the fate of black people in America.