Clarence Williams III, who played the cool secret cop Linc Hayes on the nonconformity arrangement “The Mod Squad” and Prince’s dad in “Purple Rain,” has kicked the bucket. He was 81.

Williams passed on Friday at his home in Los Angeles after a fight with colon disease, his supervisor Allan Mindel said Sunday. Accolades came rapidly via web-based media from both the individuals who worked with Williams and the individuals who appreciated him for his exploring jobs and significant exhibitions.

“Stories from the Hood” chief Rusty Cundieff tweeted that his pity over Williams’ passing, “couldn’t possibly be more significant. His imaginativeness and sheer coolness was phenomenal. I will perpetually be in his obligation for his splendid exhibition in Tales From the Hood. Cherished working with him! Favored ventures kind sir!”

Lenny Kravitz composed on Twitter, “When I was a child experiencing childhood in NYC Clarence Williams III was a face on TV that I related to and that propelled me. From the Mod Squad, to Purple Rain and Sugar Hill, he generally performed with dynamic energy. Rest in power, lord.”

Chief Peyton Reed tweeted that he worked with Williams on the TV film “The Love Bug” in 1995.

“I had grown up watching him as Linc in ‘The Mod Squad‘ and thought he was the exemplification of cool. Turns out he was. Find happiness in the hereafter, Clarence,” Reed composed.

A local of New York, Williams vocation traversed more than fifty years in theater, TV and film. He was naturally introduced to an inventive family in 1939 and raised by his melodic grandparents. His granddad was a jazz writer and piano player, his dad an artist and his mom, Eva Taylor, an artist and entertainer. He got his acting beginning on Broadway after a spell as a paratrooper and got a Tony designation for his part in William Hanley’s “Moderate Dance on the Killing Ground” in 1964.

His breakout job would accompany “The Mod Squad,” which he drove with Peggy Lipton and Michael Cole. Bill Cosby had seen Williams perform and disclosed to Aaron Spelling he ought to think about him for the job of Linc. The show ran from on ABC from 1968 through 1973. An exploring show for endeavoring to depict the nonconformist age of the time, “The Mod Squad” was a star-producer for each of the three. However, jobs rushed to follow for Williams.

He showed up on Broadway inverse Maggie Smith in Tom Stoppard’s “Night and Day” in 1979 preceding getting given a role as the disturbed dad in “Purple Rain,” which turned out in 1984.

Chief John Frankenheimer would turn into a regular partner. They initially collaborated for his transformation of Elmore Leonard’s “52 Pick-Up” when Williams was not having a lot of karma in Hollywood and slamming on Cosby’s lounge chair to keep a rooftop over his head.

“He requested me to peruse for the part from one of the blackmailers, yet after just four lines, he advised me to stop,” Williams reviewed in a 1999 meeting. “I thought it was all finished, however he said, ‘Have your representative call me. It will be a 10-week shoot. Much obliged to you for coming in.’ That was it.”

Williams additionally showed up in Frankenheimer’s “Against the Wall,” “Reindeer Games” and a few scenes of “Stories from the Crypt.”

Williams could order an assortment of classes, including parody. He played a medication master inverse Dave Chappelle in “Silly” and took scenes in Keenen Ivory Wayans’ blaxploitation spoof film “I’m Gonna Git You Sucka.” He additionally had a repetitive part as the FBI specialist in David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks” who discloses to Agent Cooper he’s been suspended.

Other film jobs included “Stories from the Hood,” “Profound Cover,” “Sugar Hill, “The General’s Daughter,” Lee Daniels’ “The Butler” and an uncredited job in “American Gangster.” And he had many, numerous TV appearances on everything from “Miami Vice” and “Slope Street Blues” to “Everyone Hates Chris” and “Supported.”

He was hitched to the entertainer Gloria Foster from 1967 to 1984.

Williams never worried over his long-term relationship with “The Mod Squad,” however.

“All a great many people think about me is the two hours they’ve put resources into a cinema or the time spent before their TV,” he said in a meeting in 1999. “There’s such a lot of amusement out there the present moment, it’s hard to get through and turn out to be important for the public awareness. It’s ideal to be perceived, and I generally approve of it by any means.”