A graduate of the University of Southern California School of Law,
Morris Ankrum was an attorney and an economics professor before
switching careers and joining the theater. He was a veteran stage actor
by the time he entered the film industry in the 1930s. His film career spanned 1933-64, during which time he played in 279 films and TV shows. Ankrum spent much time in westerns, playing everything from Indian chiefs to crooked
bankers. Among his best remembered parts are his numerous villainous roles in Paramount's highly popular Hopalong Cassidy film series. The Hoppy films in which he appears include Die Todesranch (1937), Apachen, Bleichgesichter und Banditen (1937), Piraten zu Pferde (1941), Drei Männer aus Texas (1940), Borderland (1937), and Aufruhr in Mesa Grande (1936), among others.
He was cast in many other films throughout the '30s, '40s, and '50s, varying from small appearances to co-starring roles. He can be seen in low-budget "B" pictures and big-budget blockbusters alike. It was in the 1950s, though, that he hit his stride in the science-fiction genre, where his gruff, no-nonsense demeanor and authoritative voice perfectly fit the role of the military officer helping scientists fight off outer-space menaces, most memorably as Col. Fielding in the classic Invasion vom Mars (1953).
Later in his career he did much TV work, in such series as Bonanza (1959), Westlich von Santa Fe (1958), Tausend Meilen Staub (1959), Cheyenne (1955), Rauchende Colts (1955), The 20th Century-Fox Hour (1955), Maverick (1957), Have Gun - Will Travel (1957), Abenteuer unter Wasser (1958), and over a dozen more. At the end of his career from 1957-64, he had a recurring role as a judge in 22 episodes on the Perry Mason (1957) TV series.
