Hal Williams died Tuesday July 15 at his home in Rancho Mirage, California at the age of 91. His manager Zna Portlock Houston confirmed the death to TMZ, saying Williams had some recent health issues and had returned home just two days before he passed, feeling tired after attending a Sanford and Son reunion in Ohio with co-star Howard Platt.
Williams was born Halroy Candis Williams in Columbus, Ohio in 1934 and did not begin acting until his 30s, working as a juvenile correctional officer and in child family services before deciding to give himself three years to make it in Hollywood.
He started his overnight shift at the LAX post office to pay the bills. In 1972, he was cast as Officer "Smitty" Smith on Sanford and Son, the friendly neighborhood cop who appeared in 22 episodes opposite Platt's Officer Hoppy, the two of them developing a recurring bit where Hoppy would explain cases in dense police jargon and Smitty would translate everything for Fred and Lamont in plain English.
Deadline described their arrivals on screen as reliably signaling something funny was about to happen, the way Aunt Esther walking through the door always did.
From 1985 to 1990 he played Lester Jenkins on 227, Marla Gibbs' patient husband, father to Regina King's character and neighbor to Jackée Harry, who won an Emmy for her role on the show. He played Goldie Hawn's drill sergeant in Private Benjamin and its CBS sitcom adaptation.
He appeared on The Waltons as a wrongly imprisoned lumber mill worker across multiple seasons. He played Sinbad's father on The Sinbad Show. His most recent credit was the Matlock reboot.
He established a memorial scholarship foundation in memory of his son Mark, who died on a camping trip at age 20. He is survived by two children, three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.