Van Williams, who played crime fighters on television during the 1960s, most notably the Green Hornet on a short-lived ABC show that later attained a cult following and that introduced American audiences to the martial arts master Bruce Lee, died last week in a care facility near his home in Scottsdale, Ariz. He was 82.

The cause was renal failure, said his wife, Vicki Williams. She said that Mr. Williams probably died on the night of Nov. 28, but that he was not officially declared dead until the next day.

A tall, athletic Texan, Mr. Williams looked the part of a superhero and grew up an actual cowboy — although, curiously, he was not cast in many westerns. He played the same character, a detective named Kenny Madison, on two ABC series: “Bourbon Street Beat,” with Richard Long and Andrew Duggan, in the 1959-60 season, and then “Surfside 6,” with Lee Patterson and Troy Donahue, until 1962.

He also played a young executive alongside Walter Brennan on another ABC series, “The Tycoon,” in 1964 and 1965.