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Broad shouldered and beefy character actor with wavy black hair, and a deep booming voice who was equally adept at playing sneering cowardly villains, as he was at portraying hard nosed police officers. The son of a police officer, Claude Akins never seemed short of work and appeared in nearly 100 films and 180+ TV episodes in a career spanning over 40 years. He originally attended Northwestern Un ...  show all 

Broad shouldered and beefy character actor with wavy black hair, and a deep booming voice who was equally adept at playing sneering cowardly villains, as he was at portraying hard nosed police officers. The son of a police officer, Claude Akins never seemed short of work and appeared in nearly 100 films and 180+ TV episodes in a career spanning over 40 years. He originally attended Northwestern University, and went on to serve with the US Army Signal Corps in World War II in Burma and the Phillipines. Upon returning, Akins reignited his interest in art and drama and he first appeared in front of the camera in 1953 in the movie "The From Here To Eternity (1953)". He quickly began notching up dozens of TV roles in shows including "Dragnet" (1951)", "My Friend Flicka" (1956)", "Gunsmoke" (1955)" and "Zane Grey Theater" (1956)". Additionally, he turned up in several strong cinematic perfomances, such as gun fighter Joe Burdette in the landmark western "Rio Bravo (1959)", as Mack in the excellent "Defiant Ones (1958)" as Sgt. Kolwicz in "The Merrill's Marauders (1962)" and as Earl Sylvester in the gripping "Killers (1964)". In the early 1970s, Akins turned up in several supernatural TV films playing "no-nonsense" sherrifs in both "Night Stalker, The (1972) (TV)" and "Norliss Tapes, The (1973) (TV)".....and was then unrecognisable underneath his simian make up as war mongering General Aldo in "Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973)". Akins continued starring in films and TV right up until the time of his death from cancer in 1994. By all reports a very gregarious, likeable and friendly person off screen, Akins was married for over 40 years to Theresa "Pie" Fairfield, and had three children, Claude Marion Jr., Michele & Wendy.  hide