Samm-Art Williams, 78, playwright, producer, actor

Samm-Art Williams, who made his mark in several fields — as an executive producer of the sitcom “the fresh prince of Bel-Air,” as an actor on both stage and screen, and as a tonynominated playwright for “Home,” died may 13 in Burgaw, n.c. He was 78.

His death was confirmed by his cousin carol Brown. She did not cite a cause.

An imposing 6-foot-8 (a lefty, he once served as a sparring partner to muhammad Ali), mr. Williams appeared in films including Brian De palma’s homage to Alfred Hitchcock, “Dressed to Kill” (1980), and the coen brothers’ neo-noir, “Blood Simple” (1984). He had a memorable turn as Jim in the 1986 adaptation of “Adventures of Huckleberry finn,” part of pBS’s “American playhouse” series.

committed to expanding the Black presence in Hollywood, he was both a writer and an executive producer on “fresh prince,” a hit 1990s nBc comedy starring Will Smith as a street-smart teenager from West philadelphia who moves in with his aunt and uncle in the moneyed hills of los Angeles.

He also served as a writer and a producer on the television shows “martin” and “frank’s place.” He was nominated for two Emmy Awards — for his work as a writer on “motown Returns to the Apollo” in 1985 and a producer of “frank’s place” in 1988.

Raised in Burgaw, a former railroad town north of Wilmington, n.c., he moved to new York in 1973 to pursue a career in acting. It was his wistfulness for his small Southern hometown that inspired “Home,” a production of the celebrated negro Ensemble company that opened at the St. marks playhouse in manhattan six years later before moving to Broadway.

the play, which is being revived on Broadway by the Roundabout theater company, tells the story of a young Black farmer and master raconteur, cephus miles, in the fictional small town of cross Roads, n.c.

Jailed for refusing to serve in the vietnam War, cephus moves to an unnamed northern city, where his life spirals downward before he returns home to find redemption.

the play evolved from a poem that mr. Williams wrote, as a tribute to his mother, on a greyhound bus when he was on the way home for christmas.

“In new York, I was lonely and missing the South,” he recalled in a 2010 interview with the chicago Sun-times. “But I knew I couldn’t go home, because I hadn’t achieved anything yet. the idea for the play came out of that longing.”

“Home” came to be regarded as a classic of Black theater.

mel gussow praised the play in a review of the original production in the new York times, writing, “In all respects — writing, direction and performance — this is one of the happiest theatrical events of the season.”

gussow admired mr. Williams’s lyricism, noting that he was “clearly in love with words, which in his hands become a rolling caravan of images.” He also compared his use of dialect to that of mark twain.

mr. Williams later said his poetic approach to language was part of his mission to change racial perceptions in the eyes of the entertainment industry, as well as audiences.

“If it’s in the English language, it’s for everybody,” he said in a 1985 interview with the los Angeles times. “this may not be everybody’s truth — producers, directors, audiences — but it is Samm-Art Williams’s truth.”

Samuel Arthur Williams was born Jan. 20, 1946, in philadelphia and raised in Burgaw by his mother, valdosia, a high school English and drama teacher.

“talk was everything there, good talk,” he said of his small town in a 1982 interview with the Baltimore Sun. “If you didn’t speak, they thought you were crazy.”

the easy banter he heard growing up informed his later work. “I’m very interested in folk tale as an art form,” he added. “It’s very simple. Whether you’re Black, white or green,” a folk tale “has no color.”

Influenced by his mother, he showed an early interest in writing and acting and read “everything from langston Hughes to Edgar Allan poe,” he told the los Angeles times.

“‘the Raven’ was my greatest influence — in seeing this bird, I saw what a great thing it was to be able to work on a person's mind with words.”