
Frances E. Williams
Acting
Biography
Frances Elizabeth Williams (September 17, 1905 – January 2, 1995) was an American actress, activist, theatre producer, organizer, and community worker. Williams was the first black woman to run for the California State Assembly in 1948 on the Progressive Ticket and served on the boards of the Screen Actors Guild, Actors' Lab, and Actors Equity. She represented the World Peace Council at the first Angola Independence Celebration in 1975, and co-founded the Art Against Apartheid Movement in Los Angeles in the 1980s. Williams began her acting career in the late 1930s, joining the cast of the play You Can't Take It with You. The company went on tour across the U.S. for two years. She appeared in two of Oscar Micheaux’s films, Lying Lips, 1939, and The Notorious Elinor Lee, 1940. Her first Hollywood film role was as Amy in Magnificent Doll (1946), followed by The Reckless Moment (1949) and Show Boat (1951). While she appeared on stage, in over forty films, on television shows in minor roles, and in commercials, Williams' biggest role to date came in 1987, when she played Miss Marie in the comedy-drama series Frank's Place starring Tim Reid. Despite being well received by many fans and critics, it was cancelled after one season (1987–1988).
Known For

21 Jump Street revolves around a group of young cops who would use their youthful appearance to go undercover and solve crimes involving teenagers and young adults.
21 Jump Street

Julia Sugarbaker, Mary Jo Shively, Charlene Frazier-Stillfield and Suzanne Sugarbaker are associates at their design firm, Sugarbaker and Associates. Julia is the owner and is very outspoken and strong-willed. Mary Jo is a divorced single-parent whom is just as strong-willed as Julia, but isn't as self-confident. Charlene is the naive and trusting farm girl from Poplar Bluff, Missouri. Suzanne is the self-centered ex-beauty queen whom has a number of wealthy ex-husbands.
Designing Women

Frank's Place is an American comedy-drama series which aired on CBS for 22 episodes during the 1987-1988 television season. The series was created by Hugh Wilson and executive produced by Wilson and series star Tim Reid. Frank's Place is the most recent show that ran for only one season which was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series. TV Guide ranked it #3 on their 2013 list of 60 shows that were "Cancelled Too Soon".
Frank's Place

After discovering he's not really black like the rest of his family, likable dimwit Navin Johnson sets off on a hilarious misadventure that takes him from rags to riches and back again. The slaphappy jerk strikes it rich, but life in the fast lane isn't all it's cracked up to be and, in the end, all that really matters to Johnson is his true love.
The Jerk

A television miniseries based on the life of Harriet Tubman, the escaped African American slave who helped to organize the Underground Railroad, and who led dozens of African Americans from enslavement in the Southern United States to freedom in the Northern states and Canada.
A Woman Called Moses

A five-year-old boy is the sole survivor of a devastating plane crash in the mountains of California. When the newspapers reveal the boy was adopted and that the crash occurred on his birthday, three women begin to ponder if it's the son each gave up for adoption. As the three await news of his rescue at a mountain cabin, they recall incidents from five years earlier and why they were forced to give up their son.
Three Secrets

After discovering the dead body of her teenage daughter's lover, a housewife takes desperate measures to protect her family from scandal.
The Reckless Moment

In this actioner, a bounty hunter is assigned to bring back an enormous and angry ex-convict who wears a deadly glove made of leather and steel. Rock'em sock'em mayhem ensues.
The Glove

While packing her belongings in preparation of evacuating the White House because of the impending British invasion of Washington D.C., Dolly Payne Madison thinks back on her childhood, her first marriage, and later romances with two very different politicians, Aaron Burr and his good friend James Madison. She plays each against the other, not only for romantic reasons, but also to influence the shaping of the young country. By manipulating Burr's affections, she helps Thomas Jefferson win the presidency, and eventually she becomes First Lady of the land herself.
Magnificent Doll

A documentary filmmaker, who has spent the last 15 years making films like "Aluminum: Our Shiny Friend," is finally given the chance to make the documentary on Indian farming he has always wanted to. The catch? He must simultaneously direct a porn film. But as he tries to make the porn film, which he turns into a musical called "Halloween in the Barracks," he must deal with a temperamental actor, a fundamentalist preacher, and other obstacles.
Rented Lips

Adapted from the TV and radio series of the same name, the producer of said show reads letters from three woman providing the framing story for this melodrama anthology film. The tales focus on parenting and family struggles.
Queen for a Day

How does retired cop Joshua Burke (James Earl Jones) get two career criminals, Manny Durrell (Sidney Poitier) and Dave Anderson (Bill Cosby), to follow the straight and narrow? Con them into helping juvenile delinquents turn over a new leaf. But how? Burke has never been able to nail the duo, but he uses what he knows of their seedy past to blackmail them into volunteering.
A Piece of the Action

An African-American political activist is wrongfully imprisoned for killing two white policemen; he is unwary of yet another white lawyer who claims that he will help free him.
The Ambush Murders

When his son accidentally kills someone, a lawyer must defend the man wrongly charged with the murder.
The Family Secret

In 1950s Harlem a vicious Italian gangster (Frank deKova) tries to muscle in on a black racketeer's (Paul Harris) numbers game.
Baby Needs a New Pair of Shoes

Heated confrontations and revelations result when a divorcee returns with her young son to the home of her two sisters.
Sister, Sister

A group of ghetto kids try to find out who killed a popular police officer.
Together Brothers

After his daughter is killed by the KKK, a black man seeks revenge by passing as white and becoming a Klansman.
The Black Klansman

In this pilot to the short-lived "Hell Town," Robert Blake plays a scrappy, ex-convict-turned-ghetto priest in an impoverished inner-city parish.
Father of Hell Town

A documentary chronicling the pioneering efforts of black filmmaker William D. Foster in the early years of the industry and Oscar Micheaux's controversial impact on the subsequent "race movies".