John McLiam
Acting
Born 1918-01-24
Died 1994-04-16
Alberta, Canada
101 credits
Read biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John McLiam (born John Williams; January 24, 1918 – April 16, 1994) was a Canadian actor noted for his skill at different accents. His film appearances include My Fair Lady (1964), In Cold Blood (1967), John Frankenheimer's movie of The Iceman Cometh (1973), The Missouri Breaks (1976), and First Blood (1982). He was a guest star in numerous television series and wrote a Broadway play, The Sin of Pat Muldoon.
Early life
He attended St. Mary's College of California (Moraga, California). During World War II he served in the United States Navy as an intelligence officer, having received a Bronze Star. After the war he worked briefly as a journalist for the San Francisco Examiner.
He took McLiam, the Gaelic form of his real surname Williams, as a stage name.
Acting career
His acting career began in Maxwell Anderson's Winterset in San Francisco in 1946. After a few roles in plays in California he moved to New York. His first Broadway role was as a guard in Maxwell Anderson's Barefoot in Athens in 1951. His other stage roles include Shaw's Saint Joan, and Tiger at the Gates, Christopher Fry's version of a Jean Giraudoux play, which ran 1959–60 on Broadway. He appeared in the original Broadway cast of One More River (1960).
He moved to California in 1960 to work in film and television. His film roles included a cockney ne'er-do-well in My Fair Lady (1964), Boss Kean in Cool Hand Luke (1967), In Cold Blood (1967) as murder victim Herbert Clutter, John acted as the pilot/flight instructor for Aunt Bee in Season 8 of The Andy Griffith Show, "Aunt Bee's Big Moment" Halls of Anger (1970), Woody Allen's Sleeper (1973), rancher David Braxton in The Missouri Breaks (1976), and Orval in First Blood (1982). He played Jimmy Tomorrow in John Frankenheimer's American Film Theater movie of The Iceman Cometh (1973), alongside Fredric March, Lee Marvin, Robert Ryan and Jeff Bridges.
Personal life
McLiam and his wife Roberta had a daughter, Claire. He died in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California in 1994 from melanoma and Parkinson's disease. McLiam was interred at the Santa Barbara Cemetery at Santa Barbara, California. CLR
Not enough member ratings yet.
Sign in to rate.
Filmography
— top 60 of 101
Perry Mason
Hunter
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Dallas
Murder, She Wrote
The Andy Griffith Show
Ironside
The A-Team
The Fugitive
Falcon Crest
Bonanza
M*A*S*H
Wagon Train
Magnum, P.I.
The Virginian
The Wild Wild West
The Twilight Zone
Get Smart
Mannix
Mission: Impossible
T. J. Hooker
My Three Sons
Starsky & Hutch
The Untouchables
Gunsmoke
The F.B.I.
Northern Exposure
The Incredible Hulk
First Blood
Highway to Heaven
The Invaders
Barnaby Jones
The Outer Limits
The Mod Squad
Harry O
Archie Bunker's Place
12 O'Clock High
Cool Hand Luke
Ghost Story
Daktari
My Fair Lady
Honey West
87th Precinct
The Wonderful World of Disney
Matt Helm
Bus Stop
Bret Maverick
Decoy
In Cold Blood
The Invisible Man
Hell Town
Sleeper
Big Jake
Gavilan
Three for the Road
Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku Klux Klan
The Missouri Breaks
Lucky Lady
Bite the Bullet
Madigan
Track what you watch
DuckTrack members see which of these they have already watched,
right here on this page.
Create a free account
Comments
0 commentsNo comments yet. Sign in to be the first.