Cara Williams

Cara Williams (born Bernice Kamiat; June 29, 1925 – December 9, 2021) was an American film and television actress. She was best known for her role as Billy's Mother in The Defiant Ones (1958), for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and for her role as Gladys Porter on the 1960–62 CBS television series Pete and Gladys, for which she was nominated for the Emmy Award for Best Lead Actress in a Comedy. At the time of her death, Williams was one of the last surviving actors from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Personal life Williams was born Bernice Kamiat to a Romanian Jewish mother and an Austrian Jewish father. She began making impersonations of all the screen stars she watched in the movies there, and knew she wanted to be an actress. Her parents divorced, and her mother relocated her to Los Angeles, where she chose Cara Williams as her stage name and attended the Hollywood Professional School. Soon she began performing in radio, and at the age of 16 in 1941, she was signed to a film contract and began performing in bit roles, credited as Bernice Kay. Williams married Alan Gray in 1945; they had a daughter, Cathy Gray, but the marriage ended after two years. Williams then married John Drew Barrymore in 1952. The marriage was troubled and they divorced in 1959. Their son, John Blyth Barrymore, is a former actor. Her third husband was Los Angeles real-estate entrepreneur Asher Dann; the couple remained together until his death in 2018, aged 83. Film and television