Actor and star of The Green Hornet
Born: February 27, 1934;
Died: November 28, 2016
VAN Williams, who has died aged 82, will be remembered for one single starring role in a show that was cancelled after just one season half a century ago, a show in which he was very much overshadowed by his chauffeur.
Williams played Britt Reid, a wealthy playboy, who doubled as The Green Hornet, the masked vigilante in the show of the same name in the mid-1960s. His driver Kato was played by a then-unknown young actor and martial arts expert from Hong Kong by the name of Bruce Lee.
The show was known in Hong Kong as The Kato Show and Lee went on become a genuine cultural icon. Williams continued in television for another decade, but left acting to set up a business hiring out pagers and walkie-talkies. And in the 1980s he became an officially recognised lawman – something his alter ego never managed.
He served as a reserve deputy sheriff in Los Angeles, where he arrested criminals for real. “They usually say things like, ‘What are you doing out here?’” said Williams. “They don’t seem to think it odd that I’m a deputy. I’m surprised by just how many people do recognise me. I’ve gotten pretty good feedback.”
Born Vanzandt Jarvis Williams in Forth Worth, Texas, in 1934, he grew up on the family ranch, took part in rodeos and studied animal husbandry and business at Texas Christian University. He worked as a diving instructor on Hawaii before trying his luck in Hollywood.
He landed one of the lead roles in the New Orleans crime series Bourbon Street Beat (1959-60) and played the same character in a spin-off series set in Miami Beach called Surfside 6 (1961-62).
The Green Hornet was created by Fran Striker and George Trendel in 1936 on the same local Detroit station where they had created The Lone Ranger a few years earlier. There had also been film serials, comics and books featuring the character.
The Green Hornet was revived by the ABC network on the back of its success with Batman. Williams was clear from the outset that he wanted the new show to be much straighter than the camp antics of the Caped Crusader and his Boy Wonder in their colourful costumes, though the characters did meet in a few episodes.
Although it ran for only one season, there was a lot of associated merchandising and it made a lasting impression on its young audience. There was a 2011 film version with Seth Rogen as the Green Hornet and Jay Chou as Kato.
After the cancellation of the television show, Williams made guest appearances in a string of other shows and had a recurring role in How The West Was Won (1976-78). One of his last appearances was as the director of The Green Hornet TV show in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993). He is survived by his second wife and by five daughters.
BRIAN PENDREIGH
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