Fred Williamson

Fred Williamson, nicknamed the Hammer, is an American actor, filmmaker and former football player who played professional football as a defensive back, mainly in the American Football League during the 1960s. After playing college football at Northwestern he spent one season with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the National Football League, four with the Oakland Raiders and three with the Kansas City Chiefs, was a three-time AFL All-Star in 1961, 1962 and 1963 and won the AFL championship in 1966. He earned his nickname with an aggressive style that used martial arts techniques. After retiring from football in 1968 he became a leading man in blaxploitation and action films, among them Black Caesar and Hell Up in Harlem, and later worked extensively in Italian cinema as an actor, director and producer.