Bill Williams Collection

Bill Williams
(1915 – 1992)

It is easy to imagine little Hermann W. Katt trapped in a classroom in PS 122, his young mind not on his school books, but finding countless adventures in the open spaces of the wild West. In the years to come, Katt would adopt the professional name Bill Williams and millions would share these youthful dreams as they watched him come into their living rooms from the small screen on TV's Adventures of Kit Carson.

Katt was born in New York City, 1915, and if the city streets were a poor substitute for the open prairie of his daydreams, they allowed him to express his youthful energy in athletic pursuits, especially as a champion swimmer. His father was an actor, so young William gravitated toward show business and worked for a time in vaudeville with the Stuart Morgan Dancers. He even won an uncredited walk-on role as a theater usher in the classic King Kong (1933). He answered his country's call in WWII by enlisting in the Army Air Corp and received an Honorable Medical Discharge before the end of the conflict.

With so much of Hollywood's leading men in uniform, this presented Williams an incredible opportunity which he did his best to take advantage of. After starting as an extra, he became a contract player with RKO. One of his early projects was with Spencer Tracy in Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944). His boyhood dreams of the old West began to come true when he appeared as a stagecoach driver in West of the Pecos (1946) starring Robert Mitchum and Barbara Hale. Although it was another small role, he caught the eye of the pretty costar. Williams and Hale married in June 1949 and had two daughters and a son, actor William Katt.

While Barbara's career took an upturn when she co starred in Jolson Sings Again (1949) and she won a new contract with Columbia, Bill left RKO to work as a freelance actor but found work in mostly B pictures. He and Barbara bought a working cattle ranch in Yucca Valley so that they could raise their kids far from the hubbub of Hollywood. In 1951, Williams began filming the first of 104 episodes of The Adventures of Kit Carson.

The kiddie Western lasted four seasons, and Bill followed up by co-starring with Betty White in the situation comedy Date With the Angels for the 1957 season. Although the sitcom was much less strenuous than his previous outing, and Williams demonstrated remarkable comic timing, the program was canceled after the first season. Barbara's new project, which began the same season, would be a much steadier gig, secretary Della Street with Raymond Burr in Perry Mason. Williams appeared as a guest with his wife in several episodes, and their son William Katt took the role of Paul Drake Jr in nine of the Perry Mason TV movies.

Williams was offered the lead in Sea Hunt in 1960. Although it would have been an ideal outlet for the aquatic talent he demonstrated as a boy, he did not think there was a future in an underwater adventure series. The part went to Lloyd Bridges and Bill was tapped to star in Assignment Underwater for 39 episodes, but the imitation folded after a single season.

A brain tumor felled Bill Williams in 1992. Barbara Hale died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease on January 26, 2017. She was 94. A Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6161 Hollywood Blvd was placed to honor the contributions to Television by Bill Williams. Barbara Hale's Star for Television is at 1628 Vine St.