Article: The Mod Squad's "Linc" Clarence William's III Dead At 81

Clarence Williams III, who starred as undercover detective Linc Hayes on ABC's "The Mod Squad," and as Prince's abusive father in 1984's "Purple Rain" has died. He was 81.

I knew him more from Tales of the Hood and Half Baked but seen him in tons of stuff over the years. He actually had an odd stern type of demeanor to him that kinda scared me as a kid tbh; think it was those intense eyes

RIP

BigStar said:

I knew him more from Tales of the Hood and Half Baked but seen him in tons of stuff over the years. He actually had an odd stern type of demeanor to him that kinda scared me as a kid tbh; think it was those intense eyes

RIP

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How could you tell, he always wore shades.....?

Met him!!!!!

I was probably 10 or 11 and we were on a family vacation to So Cal. Dad was driving the station wagon down some LA street and saw a commotion ahead. They were filming an episode of the Mod Squad and had traffic stopped. We parked and found a place to watch. It took them an hour to film 10 seconds of action. Some bad guy ran out of a house, jumped into a car, and took off. CWIII ran out after him, but wasn't fast enough to catch him. He stood there in his sunglasses, watching the baddie drive away.

We got a photo of him, me and my sister. Cool guy. Friendlier than his image would suggest.

The Mod Squad was a favorite show when i was a kid. RIP.

From Clarence Williams III's masterful performance in Purple Rain