Clarence Williams III, the reflectively intense actor who starred as Linc Hayes, a young, hip undercover police officer on ABC’s “The Mod Squad,” died on Friday in Los Angeles. He was 81.(Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare.)
The cause was colon cancer, his manager, Allan Mindel, said.
“The Mod Squad,” which ran from 1968 to 1973, was one of the first of its kind—a prime-time network series that focused on members of the hippie generation at the same time that it exploited them.
The show had two ad taglines. “First they got busted; then they got badges” summarized the show’s back story: three hippies in trouble with the law who then joined the police force as plainclothes cops with built-in disguises—their youth and their counterculture personas.
The second—“One Black, one white, one blonde”—referred to the cast: Mr. Williams, Michael Cole and Peggy Lipton. Mr. Williams was one of the first Black actors to have a lead role on a television series.
Monday, June 07, 2021
A TV Role Model Passes On
This sad news comes from The New York Times:
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I was in constant awe of the Mod Squad's ablity to get jobs in whatever company they needed to get jobs for that week's show. No matter what the case, Linc, Julie, and Pete were always hired with ease. (I thnk they fudged a lot on their resumes.)
That show was always entertaining. But it sure ages me looking back that far to shows I enjoyed watching on an actual television set. Very sad to hear that Mr. Williams died.
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