Fred Williamson

Fred Williamson — Biography

Fred Williamson -- born Frederick Robert Williamson on March 5, 1938, in Gary, Indiana -- built two careers, first as a professional football player and later as an American film actor and filmmaker, known to fans as "the Hammer" because of his aggressive style on the field. After playing college football at Northwestern, he spent one NFL season with the Pittsburgh Steelers before moving to the newer American Football League, where he was a three-time All-Star (1961, 1962, 1963) with the Oakland Raiders and later helped the Kansas City Chiefs win the 1966 AFL championship.

He retired from football in 1968 and turned to acting, first in television guest roles and then as a leading man of 1970s blaxploitation and action cinema. His early starring vehicles included The Legend of Nigger Charley (1972) and its sequels, the crime drama Black Caesar (1973) and its follow-up Hell Up in Harlem, and Three the Hard Way (1974). From the mid-1970s he also began writing, directing and producing his own pictures, and later worked extensively in Italian genre films, taking roles in titles such as 1990: The Bronx Warriors (1982), Warrior of the Lost World (1983) and White Fire (1984).