![]() And when you took the trash out, you'd have to go through the embalming room to the back alley to put it away. And we lived - my sister and I lived with her for a part of the time, and we lived above the funeral parlor. in New York City, in Harlem, there was a Griffin-Peters Funeral Home, which a lot of people may have seen because it was like four doors down from the world-famous Smalls Paradise nightclub, where a lot of the magnificent jazz musicians all through the years have played back in the heyday of the '40s, '50s and part of the '60s. TERRY GROSS: Now, I read that you grew up over a funeral parlor, yes? Death - it comes in many strange packages. You know, it keeps them from smelling and decomposing before the service. We shoot them real good with embalming fluid mainly. UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) Yo, man, what kind of drug do their people be needing? The only drugs I know about are those that have to do with the deceased. ![]() (SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "TALES FROM THE HOOD")ĬLARENCE WILLIAMS III: (As Mr. He opens up a series of coffins and terrifies the dealers with supernatural stories behind the death of each of the corpses. The mortician, who seems to come from the world of the dead, is played by Clarence Williams. When Terry spoke to him in 1995, he was in the comic horror film "Tales From The Hood," about three young dealers looking for a lost drug shipment at an address that turns out to be a funeral home. He played a killer in "52 Pick-Up," an abusive father in Prince's film "Purple Rain" and a heroin addict in "Sugar Hill." He also had comedic roles in Dave Chappelle's film "Half Baked" and in Keenen Ivory Wayans blaxploitation parody "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka." And he had guest appearances in nearly 40 TV series, including "Hill Street Blues" and "Empire." ![]() In the 1980s, Clarence Williams became known for specializing in quirky, sometimes brutal characters. It was one of the first shows to focus on the counterculture generation and one of the first to feature an interracial cast. Williams got his start on Broadway, but his big break was being cast on "The Mod Squad," which ran from 1968 to 1973. We're going to listen back to our interview with Clarence Williams III, best known for playing Linc Hayes, one of three hippie-delinquents-turned-undercover-cops in the ABC series "The Mod Squad." Williams died June 4 at the age of 81.
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