Fred Williams (*09 Feb 1938)

Born in Munich as Friedrich Wilhelm Löcherer, Fred Williams studied to become a mechanical engineer but after being discovered by an Italian film producer in a bar in the swanky suburb of Schwabing he anglicised his name and started a career as an actor in Italian and European movies. 

In Angelique et le roy/Angelique and the King (1966) Williams plays exiled Hungarian Prince Rakoczy who has assumed some kind of Robin Hood style role and saves Angelique (Michèle Mercier) from being raped by a Persian Bey. 

Starting with El conde Drácula/Count Dracula (1970) where he played Jonathan Harker, good looking but somewhat uncharismatic Williams became one of Jess Franco’s regular stars in a series of his movies in the early to mid-1970s. Four of those were influenced by or may even be considered as the Krimi genre’s final breath and featured a number of the genre’s familiar faces: Der Teufel kam aus Akasava/The Devil Came from Akasava (1971), She Killed in Ecstasy (1971), Der Todesrächer von Soho/The Corpse Packs His Bags (1972) and the La venganza del doctor Mabuse/Dr. M schlägt zu (1972). 

Williams seems to also have appeared in a number of the popular Italian photo-comics at the time, a topic for which he was interviewed for German TV station WDR in a 1973 documentary Einmal wirst auch Du mich lieben – Über die Bedeutung von Heftromanen. 

His best known mainstream role was in the big budget war drama A Bridge Too Far (1977) where he appeared in a supporting role as an SS Officer.