‘Happy Days’ Star Anson Williams on His Bid to Become Mayor of Ojai: “The Division Has to Stop”

The latest celebrity to run for office in California is 72-year-old Anson Williams, who played dopey Potsie on Happy Days and has tossed his hat in the ring to become mayor of Ojai.

The Nov. 8 election will see Williams challenge incumbent Betsy Stix on a platform that includes developing a sustainable tourism infrastructure, shuttle services on weekends for major events, expansion of bike paths and trails, solar incentives and a graywater system for hotels and golf courses, among many other proposed initiatives.

“Not only are things not being done or completed, but there’s a division in the community that won’t continue under my leadership,” explained Williams, who told The Hollywood Reporter that he doesn’t expect to rely too heavily on Hollywood connections to raise his chances outside of Happy Days “brothers” Ron Howard and Henry Winkler.

“I’ve had deep, deep friendships with [them] for more than 40 years. They would help and I would love that because we’re family. But I don’t want to make this a [Hollywood campaign] because it goes against the heart of the community.”

Take me back to 2011 when you moved to Ojai. Why did you make that decision? Were you living in Los Angeles at the time?

I lived in L.A. at the time and I remember it being a precarious time in the country. I was thinking about my kids [at the time], and I wanted to get to a fail-safe community that could be a very positive experience for them. I had always loved Ojai through the years and come up to spend a weekend or go hiking. It’s always been a very special, loving and kind community where I felt the best of me. At that time in 2011, I was very fortunate to have been able to buy a house here while keeping the other house [in L.A.]. We would come up for almost like retreats, for three or four months a year. It became a place to grow vegetables, and it felt much safer than the environment we were in.

I moved permanently more than four years ago after having a personal situation come up, which came after a really scary time in my life when I had colon cancer. The cancer wasn’t a big deal as they were able to fix that, but I had a lot of complications in the hospital that ended up being quite precarious. A four-day stay ended up a month. But I survived it and now I’m great, thank goodness. But the personal problems in my life left me pretty broken and just so depressed. I really needed to kind of fire up again in life. Slowly, this community embraced me and brought me back. I owe a lot to Ojai for that, for my health, my sanity and the ability to move forward.

What sparked a desire to get into local politics?

I really became perturbed at the division I saw happening in Ojai. It hit right down the center because of disinformation, backdoor politics and shadowy situations. The can kept getting kicked down the street and it seemed like nothing was getting done to keep our city secure and thriving, sustainability-wise. I saw it was becoming a mess, and someone asked me to run for mayor. At first, I thought it was a crazy, crazy idea. However, years before, I was on the board of the USO and the board for cerebral palsy. I’m familiar with big challenges. As a director, you get used to directing a hundred people on set; it’s like a small city, and you need psychology and all of these other skills to help people to get along and accomplish a task with respect to everyone involved. It’s a very challenging job, and those skills have stayed with me. So, after thinking about it, I called five other small-town mayors [for advice].

Who did you call?

I called [Mayor] Debbie Ruddock in Half Moon Bay. I called the mayors of Sausalito, Carmel, St. Helena and Calistoga. They were all very, very nice and they spent a lot of time with me. I had a lot of questions about the challenges they had faced and how they were able to overcome those and thrive. They gave me so much information and knowledge that hasn’t been thought of or applied here in Ojai that could help us tremendously. That’s when I decided I was going to run for mayor because I can help. The division has to stop, collaboration has to start, and progress needs to be made. Not being a politician really helps me because the only thing I’m after is to right the ship and get us going in the right direction.

That’s a lot to unpack. First, can we go back to the disinformation you mentioned? Can you be more specific about what that means for Ojai and where you believe it’s coming from?

There are a lot of issues that we are not being informed of properly. You’ve probably heard about the water situation and people saying that we can’t have affordable housing because of the water. “We can’t have this because the sky is falling! We’re going to dry up!” I kind of believed it myself until I did my own research. I went to the water board and read 400 pages of research that they did. Everyone kept saying, “Look at Lake Casitas! Oh my God, it’s going down and it’s really scary.” Guess what? We don’t get one drop of water from Lake Casitas. Not one. We have an aquifer in the city that’s been there for decades and decades, and guess what? It’s never gone down. It’s always been healthy, and if rain stopped today, there’s a 10-year supply of water stored in the aquifer.

That’s one thing. Another is fire. We had the Thomas Fire in 2017 and since then, they’ve worked on a fire plan that’s been all research and broad strokes. Nothing has been completed, and if there was to be a fire today, it’s over. Nothing has been done, and the priority of the current mayor was stopping valet parking in Ojai. The priority should be the lives of our children and the residents. We have tons of eucalyptus trees, pine trees and Mexican palms, and if they get hit by a spark, it’s over. Why aren’t we doing our due diligence and making this a safe community? It’s not been a priority, and that gets me crazy.

Let’s go back to another thing you mentioned about someone requesting that you run for mayor. Who?

I would rather not say. It was a member of the city council.

You’ve mentioned some of your criticisms of the current mayor. Do you know her personally?

She’s a very, very nice person. I’ve said hi to her but I don’t know her personally much at all. Coming in, she wasn’t very experienced. But for me, I just don’t feel the job is being done. What I care about is putting a stop to kicking the can down the road, and we can absolutely correct the challenges. If I become the mayor, on day one, I would bring in these very reputable companies that come into a city and help with all the recycling, water, catching graywater and they do everything for free. It would bring down everyone’s payments and help protect the community. Let’s think outside the box.

It would be easy for people to say the same of you — that you have no experience. How do you respond to that criticism?

Well, that’s the thing, I do have experience but they don’t know it. People like to assume things and they love to say, “You’re Hollywood.” I’ve never lived in Hollywood in my life. Most of the time as a director, you might be working at a warehouse in Van Nuys or in Vancouver. [Voters] have to get to know me because while my background isn’t in a political position, I do have experience managing challenging situations with people and big budgets. When you direct television shows, you’re dealing with millions of dollars for a show and you’re required to get that thing done and on-budget with 80 department heads that may or may not like each other, and you have to make sure that everyone gets along and the actors come out of the trailers. It’s a huge job and a huge responsibility. Thank goodness I have been able to do it numerous times.

Aside from that, I know how to work with an organization to make things work and bring projects to completion. I was on the board of the USO in the ‘80s, and I was in charge of entertainment. It was a nonpartisan, neutral kind of fun thing. I won’t get into the details, but I was able to make it a profit center for the USO because we were able to get corporate sponsors and save the money they were spending on the tours for other [projects]. Since that time, the USO has never had to spend a penny on their tours.

Wow.

I’ve been proud to work on things that make lives better for people. Back in 1980, I worked on a film with Ron Howard called Skyward with Bette Davis, and it was the first film to star a paraplegic actress [Suzy Barbieri].

Inclusive casting is at the forefront of the conversation right now in Hollywood. Skyward was a film based on your own idea — can you take me back to that casting decision? Did you face any pushback in getting the actress in the film?

It’s an interesting story. My cousin had cerebral palsy, and I was doing a lot for cerebral palsy [awareness] all over the country by serving the board and telethons, whatever I could do to help out for it and the larger [disability community]. What inspired the film was that I was often going from my parent’s house in Burbank past the airport. There was this funky little plane and a girl in a wheelchair handing tools to someone working on the plane. I came up with an idea for a film by the time I got home because it made me think of this girl was always looking up, skyward. Her world was looking up and I thought, what if she gets to look down for the first time so that when others look up, they are looking skyward at her?

Ron has a heart as big as this country and he understood the story, and we sold the script into development. Once we had a finished script, it came out really, really nicely. We took it to Brandon Tartikoff [at NBC]. We knew it would be a hard sell, so Ron did a screen test with Suzy so we could show him how good she was. Ron brought the tape to Brandon to prove she could do it. I don’t know if you ever met Brandon but he was one of the greatest television executives in history — what a man, what a heart.

He said Suzy’s tape was really good but that the network had a deal with Melissa Sue Anderson. “She gets ratings, we’re going to have to hire Melissa,” he said. We argued some more, and he said that if we could get someone big like Bette Davis, then we could use Suzy. So Ron and I walked out of there thinking that getting Bette Davis was like being asked to get the pope. Her career was so hot then, and that very night, I was watching [The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson] and who is on there? Bette Davis!

She was complaining about all the old-lady parts she was being offered, saying she wants some action parts. What’s more of an action part than playing [a flight instructor in Skyward]? We got her the script and she read it and said yes. So we got Bette Davis and we got Suzy. The film got made, and the word got out [about disability rights] at a time when the movement was gaining traction. The United Nations proclaimed 1981 as the Year of Disabled Persons. We even screened the film at the Kennedy Center and Bette Davis showed up, as did members of the Senate and Congress. We met with lobbyists and politicians. The film became a tool, ahead of the passing of the Americans With Disabilities Act.

I don’t want to go off on too much of a tangent here, but I read that Ron Howard said he had a hard time with Bette Davis on the film because she was quite cold to him and would only call him Mr. Howard for much of the production …

Yes, and then one day she said, “I’ll see you tomorrow, Ron.”  

What was your experience with her?

It was a challenge, man. It was a challenge. She was tough. She was tough. She said to me, “You’re a baby. You’re a baby.” I said, “Yeah, but I’m also the executive producer.” By the way, that was just another challenge that I got through.

When you look back on your Hollywood career, what are you most proud of?

There are so many projects that I’m incredibly proud of. The first film I ever directed was an After School Special [titled No Greater Gift] that I co-wrote about organ donation, and we won a Humanitas Prize award for it. It doubled organ donor cards in the United States, and they screened it all over. I’m proud of another film I directed, called Lone Star Kid with James Earl Jones, which I also co-wrote based on a true story of a 12-year-old mayor in a small town in Texas. He was the youngest mayor in the history of the United States. It’s a hell of a story.

Looking over your Hollywood résumé, it looks like you’ve slowed down on directing and producing over the past 10 years. Why?

No, actually, I had another life going too. Here’s the other reason I think I’m qualified [to be mayor]: I had a successful product company for 20-some years. In terms of running a company, I was responsible from the label to the liquid. I have a lot of detailed experience with getting things created, done and getting them into CVS, Walmart, Walgreens. So when people ask me if I think there will be pressure to get things done as mayor, I say no because I know how to work under pressure, whether that be running a company or running a set.

Ojai is such a popular destination for visitors, especially those coming from Hollywood. I know a number of people have second homes there or in the area. How will you rely on your Hollywood peers or colleagues for your campaign?

First of all, Ron Howard and Henry Winkler have been so supportive. I mean, they’re brothers, they really are brothers. They are people I’ve had deep, deep friendships with for more than 40 years. They would help, and I would love that because we’re family. But I don’t want to make this a [Hollywood campaign] because it goes against the heart of the community.

Speaking of the community, you’ve been posting videos on Twitter asking a question of the day to engage the community. What’s the most surprising thing you’ve learned from that?

It’s a combination. I find a lot of it is about the frustration of things not getting done. People are surprised at the disinformation. It kind of woke them up a little bit. I’ve also learned what I had to do to get people to give me a chance because people have a lot of preconceived ideas. A lot of what I’ve been doing is to help bring them around to at least listen to me, listen to my platform and what I’m about. I know this is about proving myself to voters that I’m a viable choice. Give me a chance.

One of your recent tweets had a lot of engagement, the post calling out Marjorie Taylor Greene for “lecturing us on mental illness.” Why did you decide to do that?

I try to stay out of those politics but I couldn’t help myself. I had to turn it back on her. What a destructive human being. She is just the example of what is so scary about this country right now. It’s scary. My daughters now have less rights than their mom. Everything that we’ve fought for all these years is going down the drain. We now actually have a president. He’s showing up. I think people are seeing that patience pays off. We have a good guy in there who is strong on the outside and he’s getting stuff done.

That’s the question voters will have for you: How will you get stuff done? What kind of leader will you be if you are elected mayor of Ojai?

I’m a leader who inspires, collaborates and gets people out of the house together to get things done. I don’t just talk. I always find a way to move forward. By speaking to these other mayors — we’re going to have a little group — I’ve learned how to consistently work hard toward solutions rather than continuing to kick a can down the road. We’re going to resolve issues and move forward in this city. It’s not OK to sit there and pass the buck. We will get it done. I’ve proven in so many areas in my life — from philanthropy to movies to products to business to saving lives — that life is about meeting challenges and finding a way to solve them. It’s about completing what you set out to do. I’ve done that. I’ve proven it. And I will do it for Ojai.

Interview edited for length and clarity.

A version of this story first appeared in the Aug. 17 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.