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Morris Ankrum
Morris Ankrum (August 28, 1897 – September 2, 1964) was an American radio, television, and film character actor.
Ankrum was born in Danville in Vermilion County in eastern Illinois, and pursued a career in law. After graduating from The University of Southern California, he went on to an associate professorship in economics at the University of California, Berkeley. While at Berkeley, he became involved in the drama department and eventually began teaching drama and directing at the Pasadena Playhouse.
From 1923 to 1939 he acted in a number of Broadway stage productions, including Gods of the Lightning, The Big Blow, and Within the Gates.
Before signing with Paramount Pictures in the 1930s, Nussbaum had already changed his last name to Ankrum. Upon signing with the studio, he chose to use the name "Stephen Morris" before changing it to Morris Ankrum in 1939.
Ankrum was cast in supporting roles as stalwart authority figures, including scientists, military men (particularly United States Army officers), judges, trail hands, bankers, and even psychiatrists in more than 270 films and television episodes. His parts included villainous roles in Paramount's Hopalong Cassidy film series. Ankrum was in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's production of Tennessee Johnson (1942), a biographical film about Andrew Johnson, the 17th U.S. president. As Sen. Jefferson Davis, Ankrum addresses the United States Senate upon his resignation to lead the Confederate States of America as that republic's first—and only—president. Ankrum's film career spanned 30 years. His credits were largely concentrated in the western and science-fiction genres.
Ankrum appeared in such westerns as Ride 'Em Cowboy in 1942, Vera Cruz opposite Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster, Apache (1954), and Cattle Queen of Montana with Barbara Stanwyck and Ronald Reagan.
In the science fiction genre, he appeared as the rocket project leader in Rocketship X-M (1950); as a Martian leader in Flight to Mars (1951); in Red Planet Mars (1952), playing the United States Secretary of Defense; in the cult classic Invaders From Mars (1953), playing a United States Army colonel; as Army generals in Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956) and Beginning of the End (1957); as a psychiatrist in the cult classic Kronos (1957); an Air Force general in The Giant Claw (1957); President Ulysses S. Grant in From the Earth to the Moon (1958); and an archeologist in the independent production Giant from the Unknown (1958).
By the end of 1958 Ankrum's film career had essentially ended, though he continued taking television roles. In the syndicated series Stories of the Century Ankrum played outlaw Chris Evans, who with his young associate John Sontag, played by John Smith, turned to crime to thwart the Southern Pacific Railroad, which Evans and Sontag held in contempt.
Morris Ankrum
Morris Ankrum (August 28, 1897 – September 2, 1964) was an American radio, television, and film character actor.
Ankrum was born in Danville in Vermilion County in eastern Illinois, and pursued a career in law. After graduating from The University of Southern California, he went on to an associate professorship in economics at the University of California, Berkeley. While at Berkeley, he became involved in the drama department and eventually began teaching drama and directing at the Pasadena Playhouse.
From 1923 to 1939 he acted in a number of Broadway stage productions, including Gods of the Lightning, The Big Blow, and Within the Gates.
Before signing with Paramount Pictures in the 1930s, Nussbaum had already changed his last name to Ankrum. Upon signing with the studio, he chose to use the name "Stephen Morris" before changing it to Morris Ankrum in 1939.
Ankrum was cast in supporting roles as stalwart authority figures, including scientists, military men (particularly United States Army officers), judges, trail hands, bankers, and even psychiatrists in more than 270 films and television episodes. His parts included villainous roles in Paramount's Hopalong Cassidy film series. Ankrum was in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's production of Tennessee Johnson (1942), a biographical film about Andrew Johnson, the 17th U.S. president. As Sen. Jefferson Davis, Ankrum addresses the United States Senate upon his resignation to lead the Confederate States of America as that republic's first—and only—president. Ankrum's film career spanned 30 years. His credits were largely concentrated in the western and science-fiction genres.
Ankrum appeared in such westerns as Ride 'Em Cowboy in 1942, Vera Cruz opposite Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster, Apache (1954), and Cattle Queen of Montana with Barbara Stanwyck and Ronald Reagan.
In the science fiction genre, he appeared as the rocket project leader in Rocketship X-M (1950); as a Martian leader in Flight to Mars (1951); in Red Planet Mars (1952), playing the United States Secretary of Defense; in the cult classic Invaders From Mars (1953), playing a United States Army colonel; as Army generals in Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956) and Beginning of the End (1957); as a psychiatrist in the cult classic Kronos (1957); an Air Force general in The Giant Claw (1957); President Ulysses S. Grant in From the Earth to the Moon (1958); and an archeologist in the independent production Giant from the Unknown (1958).
By the end of 1958 Ankrum's film career had essentially ended, though he continued taking television roles. In the syndicated series Stories of the Century Ankrum played outlaw Chris Evans, who with his young associate John Sontag, played by John Smith, turned to crime to thwart the Southern Pacific Railroad, which Evans and Sontag held in contempt.
