Edwin Wallace Williams

On Thursday, October 2, 2025, the closing credits rolled on the life of Edwin Wallace Williams at the end of a 98-year run. He had family with him in his final days, telling him about the favorite scenes he had played in their lives. And he had family with him when the final curtain came down.

Arriving onstage on November 26, 1926 in San Jose, California, he was the middle child of Paul and Phyllis Williams. Along with his older brother Paul Jr. and younger brother Waldo, Ed grew up in the old family home his grandparents Edward and Fannie had built on 3rd and Reed. San Jose in 1926 had a population of only around 50,000 people

Ed’s interest in acting dated back to his days at San Jose High. His high school drama teacher, Alice Hamm, was such an influence on him that he kept in touch with her for the rest of her life. After enlisting in the Navy and serving during the final year of World War II, he came back to San Jose and went to college on the GI Bill. He earned a Bachelors in Theater at San Jose State and a Masters in it at Stanford. In addition to college plays, he also appeared in a number of theater productions with the Lilian Fontaine Players in Los Gatos.

While at San Jose State, he met his future wife Nancy who was a nursing student there. They dated for 6 years and then married in 1954. Their 71st wedding anniversary was a week before he passed away.

After college, Ed found work in sales, radio and advertising in the San Jose and San Francisco areas. He took a break in 1955 when he and Nancy toured Europe on bicycles. The photos and memories of that trip became a touchstone of family history and travel continued to be a favorite pastime throughout their life together.

After returning from Europe, Ed and Nancy relocated to Hollywood where he could better pursue acting jobs. Like any aspiring actor, he needed a regular job to meet expenses, so he used his radio experience to get a job teaching broadcasting at the Don Martin School in Hollywood. In 1961, he moved from there to Los Angeles City College where he initially taught radio and then worked with Don McCall to develop the television broadcasting program. For years after, he would point out the names of former students in the closing credits of TV programs. Besides Radio & TV, Ed taught night classes and summer school courses in the Speech Department and eventually moved to teaching Speech full-time until his retirement in 1989.

Along the way, Ed continued to seek acting roles. While he was teaching, this was largely limited to one-day jobs like commercials, but in 1982 he landed a recurring role in the Police Squad TV series and went on to appear in all 3 of the subsequent Naked Gun movies. After retiring from L.A. City College, he focused more on acting and appeared in a number of TV movies and series as well as the 1991 version of Father of the Bride. He also returned to the stage at the Hollywood American Legion Post’s Liberty Theater, appearing in the Caine Mutiny Court Martial.

He was a member of the Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters and received their Diamond Circle award in 2017. At the end of his career, his final performances were in several of the SAG-AFTRA Radio Plays that were performed at the Gene Autry Museum and later as online performances with Hollywood Radio Players during the pandemic.

In addition to his many roles as an actor, Edwin Williams will be remembered for some of his best roles as a teacher, husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, uncle, neighbor, friend, piano player, skier, camper, sailor and boat-builder.

You’d have to watch the closing credits all the way to the end to know all the roles that Ed Williams played in our lives. And when the closing credits rolled, he was always someone who watched them to the end.

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