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Charles K. Williams

チャールズ・ケイ・ウィリアムズ

Chāruzu K. Wiriamuzu

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1909-08-13 （San Angelo, Texas）
Died
1975-04-05 （Los Angeles, California (Van Nuys)） age 65
Nationality
United States
Languages
English
Religion
Unknown
Residence History
San Angelo, Texas → Galveston, Texas → Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Washington → San Francisco, California → France → California-Oregon border → Los Angeles, California

Career

Occupations
Novelist, Electronics inspector, Radioman, Wireless operator, Radar technician, Radio service engineer
Active Years
1951-1975
Influenced By
Cornell Woolrich, James M. Cain, Erskine Caldwell
Influenced
John D. MacDonald, Charles Willeford

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Hill Girl

1951 Noir

A crime novel set in rural areas. Debut novel that sold over a million copies.

CrimeSexBackwoods noir
Adaptations
  • [Film] La Fille des collines (1990)

Hell Hath No Fury

1953 Noir

Suspense blending sex and criminality.

RevengeCrimeLust
Adaptations
  • [Film] The Hot Spot / Dennis Hopper (1990)

Dead Calm

1963 Noir

Suspense on an isolated boat.

IsolationMadnessSea
Adaptations
  • [Film] Dead Calm / Phillip Noyce (1989)

Bibliography

  • Hill Girl (1951)
  • Big City Girl (1951)
  • River Girl (1951)
  • Hell Hath No Fury (1953)
  • Nothing in Her Way (1953)
  • Go Home, Stranger (1954)
  • A Touch of Death (1954)
  • Scorpion Reef (1955)
  • The Big Bite (1956)
  • The Diamond Bikini (1956)
  • Girl Out Back (1958)
  • Talk of the Town (1958)
  • All the Way (1958)
  • Man on the Run (1958)
  • Uncle Sagamore and His Girls (1959)
  • The Sailcloth Shroud (1960)
  • Aground (1960)
  • The Long Saturday Night (1962)
  • Dead Calm (1963)
  • The Wrong Venus (1966)
  • And The Deep Blue Sea (1971)
  • Man on a Leash (1973)

Adaptations

  • The 3rd Voice (1960, All the Way)
  • Banana Peel (1963, Nothing in Her Way)
  • Le Gros coup (1964, The Big Bite)
  • The Dictator's Guns (1965, Aground)
  • Don't Just Stand There! (1968, The Wrong Venus)
  • Dead Calm (1989)
  • Fantasia Among the Squares (1971, The Diamond Bikini)
  • Confidentially Yours (1983, The Long Saturday Night)

Translations of Works

  • Numerous French translations

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Sharp but unmannered prose styleConversational narrative voiceHardboiledNoir
Recurring Motifs
Evoked natural settingsSex and criminality blendGreed and lust-driven amoral protagonistsComplex womenBackwoods noirBlue-water noir

Health

  • Depression
    1972-1975
    Worsened after wife's death and declining book sales, leading to suicide.

Legacy

Regarded as one of the finest suspense novelists of the 1950s and 1960s. Pillar of noir fiction with many adaptations.

In Popular Culture

  • Many novels adapted to film, notably Dead Calm and The Hot Spot.

Trivia

  • Debut Hill Girl sold over a million copies.
  • Married Lasca Foster in 1939; she died of cancer in 1972.
  • Survived by daughter Alison.
  • 11 Gold Medal originals.
  • Committed suicide.