There aren’t many stars left from the Hollywood classic The Naked Gun.
Now, Ed Williams, who played Ted Olsen in the movie, has passed away.
The veteran actor was 98 years old.
Served in the Navy
Ed Williams, the actor and former broadcasting teacher best known for playing lab scientist Ted Olson in Police Squad! and the original Naked Gun films, passed away on October 2, 2025, in Los Angeles.
The sad news was confirmed by his granddaughter, Stephanie Williams, to The Hollywood Reporter.
Ed Williams lived a remarkably full life before stepping in front of the camera. Born in San Jose in 1926, Williams served in the Navy, worked as a radio salesman at KSJO, and became a booth announcer at KCET Television.
He later taught broadcasting at L.A. City College while honing his craft in live theater, all before making his iconic TV debut as the warped police scientist Ted Olson in Police Squad! He was also the creative mind behind—and demonstrator of—some of Police Squad!’s most outrageous gadgets, from the Swiss-army shoe to the anti-graffiti wall and the dart-shooting cufflinks.
Ed often delivered his lines with perfect deadpan humor. For example, to Leslie Nielsen’s Lt. Frank Drebin, he once said: “As you know Frank, billions of years ago, our Earth was a molten mass. But for some reason, not understood by scientists, the earth cooled, forming a crust, a hard igneous shell. That’s what we scientists call ‘Rock.’”
Retired in 2010
William’s acting career went far beyond Leslie Nielsen’s comedies, though he largely retired from on-screen roles after a 2010 guest appearance on House.
In the years that followed, he occasionally returned for Zoom performances in the series Hollywood Radio Players between 2022 and 2023.
Between 1982 and 2010, Williams took on a variety of roles in popular TV shows, including MacGyver, Matlock, L.A. Law, and The Bold and the Beautiful.
On the big screen, he was perhaps best known for his role as the Reverend in Steve Martin’s Father of the Bride, but he also frequently portrayed clergy in films like the biographical TV movie I Want to Live, the drama Infidelity, and the comedy Going to the Chapel.
He even made a mark in the world of horror, playing Dr. Sterling Raven in the 1993 dinosaur thriller Carnosaur, which gained attention alongside Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park.
Williams is survived by his wife, Nancy, his sons Fred and Ian, and his grandchildren Maureen and Stephanie.
Fans of the Naked Gun franchise, including co-star Priscilla Presley, will remember him for his warmth, versatility, and lasting impact on film and television.
As I mentioned earlier, only a few of the original Naked Gun co-stars are still with us. Many of the film’s stars have passed away, including Leslie Nielsen (who died of pneumonia in 2010), O.J. Simpson (who died of prostate cancer in 2024), George Kennedy (who passed away of natural causes in 2016), and Ricardo Montalbán (who died of congestive heart failure in 2009).
