Life and Career
Williams was born Anson William Heimlich in Los Angeles, California. His father Haskell legally changed the original spelling of their family name to "Heimlick", unlike Williams' second cousin, Dr. Henry Heimlich, namesake of the Heimlich maneuver for treating choking victims. Williams attended high school, where he was captain of the track team and acted in multiple school productions.
In 1972, Williams landed the role of "Potsie" in a segment of the comedy-anthology series Love, American Style titled "Love and the Happy Days", which also introduced Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard), Richie's mother Marion (Marion Ross), and other characters that would be spun off into the television series Happy Days. (Only Williams, Howard and Ross reprised their roles for the spin-off). The new series' first season, during which Williams received second billing after Howard, was centered mainly on Richie and Potsie. Eventually, as break-out character Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli (Henry Winkler) and Richie's mother, father and sister became more popular, Potsie was joined with Ralph Malph (Donny Most, who was merely a side character in season one), and Potsie and Ralph became inseparable.
Unlike Howard and Most, Williams was one of the few to remain through the entire run of the series, although his appearances became less frequent in later seasons. In some episodes, Richie, Potsie and Ralph formed a band combo that performed at Arnold's Drive-In and other places. As Potsie, Williams actually sang lead vocals for the group. Williams' first wife, Lorrie Mahaffey, portrayed Potsie's girlfriend, Jennifer, in later seasons.
After Happy Days, Williams began a much more prolific career as a television director, starting with short programs for adolescent-age children, including afterschool specials "No Greater Gift" (1985) and "The Drug Knot" (1986), and TV-movie Lone Star Kid (1986). He has gone on to direct many episodes for a variety of television series, including Beverly Hills, 90210, Melrose Place, seaQuest DSV, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, Xena: Warrior Princess, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Charmed.
Despite his success as a director and producer, Williams has occasionally returned to his work on Happy Days in retrospective ways. He played himself in a 1996 Happy Days-themed Boy Meets World episode (which also featured former castmates Tom Bosley and Pat Morita). While directing a 2003 episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch titled "Sabrina in Wonderland", he appeared as Potsie in a fantasy sequence. He also joined his fellow Happy Days cast members for reunion specials in 1992 and 2005.
Williams is also a businessman. He founded Starmaker Products, a cosmetics company, and was a featured speaker at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's National Trademark Expo in April 2008, at which he talked about the importance of registered trademarks for small businesses (and signed autographs for Happy Days fans).
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