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 from 1933 to 1965 in which played in 276 films and TV shows. Ankrum spent much time in westerns, playing everything from Indian chiefs to crooked town bankers. Among his best remembered parts are his numerous villainous roles in Paramount's highly popular Hoplaong Cassidy film series. The Hoppy films in which he appears include, North of the Rio Grande, Hills of Old Wyoming, Pirates on Horseback, Three Men from Texas, Borderland, Hopalong Cassidy Returns, among others. He was cast in many other films throughout the 30s, 40s, and 50s, his parts varying from small appearances to co-starring roles. He can be seen in low-budgets and box-office hits alike. It was in the 1950s, though, that he hit his popular stride in the genre of science-fiction films, where his gruff, no-nonsense demeanor and authoritative voice perfectly fit the role of the military officer helping scientists fight an outer-space menace, most memorably as Col. Fielding in the classic film _Invaders from Mars TV series.
Screen and stage actor.
Father of actor David Ankrum.
He was a stalwart, dependable character actor whose career included supporting roles and bit parts (often uncredited) in over 150 (known) feature films. A large portion of his career involved westerns, in some of which he was cast as an Indian. He is best remembered today as one of the most familiar supporting players in low-budget science-fiction films of the 1950s (starting with Lipperts Rocketship X-M ), where he was usually the military officer, police chief or doctor/scientist.
For "Mant," the movie within the movie in Matinee , Kevin McCarthy plays a character named "Gen. Ankrum." This was director Joe Dante s tribute to Ankrum and the roles he played in those fondly remembered sci-fi films of the 1950s.
Before becoming an actor, he was an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of California-Berkeley.
Played Ed Roden with Kirk Douglas in Along the Great Divide and with Clint Walker in "Cheyenne" {The Travelers } .
