Claude Aubrey Akins (May 25, 1926 â€" January 27, 1994) was an
American character actor with a long career on stage, screen, and
television. He was best known as Sheriff Lobo on the 1979â€"1981
television series B. J. and the Bear, and later The Misadventures of
Sheriff Lobo, a spin-off series.Akins was born in Nelson, Georgia, and
grew up in Bedford, Indiana, the son of Maude and Ernest Akins. Film
reference works said he was born in 1918, making his age at death 75;
however, Akins' son said his father was 67 at the time of his death,
and he is listed as Aubrey Akins in the 1940 Census, age 13. He served
with the U.S. Army Signal Corps in World War II in Burma and the
Philippines.After the war, he graduated in 1949 from Northwestern
University, where he had majored in theatre and became a member of the
Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity.As a film actor, Akins first appeared in
From Here to Eternity (1953). He appeared as a seaman and shipmate of
Lee Marvin's in The Caine Mutiny (1954). He portrayed prisoner Joe
Burdette in Rio Bravo (starring John Wayne, Ricky Nelson, Dean Martin,
and Angie Dickinson), Naval Lt. Commander Farber in Don't Give Up the
Ship (starring Jerry Lewis), Sgt Kolowicz in Merrill's Marauders,
Rockwell W. "Rocky" Rockman in The Devil's Brigade, the Reverend
Jeremiah Brown in the movie Inherit the Wind (1960), outlaw Ben Lane
in Comanche Station that same year, Seely Jones in A Distant Trumpet
(1964), and the gorilla leader Aldo in Battle for the Planet of the
Apes (1973), the last original Apes movie.
American character actor with a long career on stage, screen, and
television. He was best known as Sheriff Lobo on the 1979â€"1981
television series B. J. and the Bear, and later The Misadventures of
Sheriff Lobo, a spin-off series.Akins was born in Nelson, Georgia, and
grew up in Bedford, Indiana, the son of Maude and Ernest Akins. Film
reference works said he was born in 1918, making his age at death 75;
however, Akins' son said his father was 67 at the time of his death,
and he is listed as Aubrey Akins in the 1940 Census, age 13. He served
with the U.S. Army Signal Corps in World War II in Burma and the
Philippines.After the war, he graduated in 1949 from Northwestern
University, where he had majored in theatre and became a member of the
Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity.As a film actor, Akins first appeared in
From Here to Eternity (1953). He appeared as a seaman and shipmate of
Lee Marvin's in The Caine Mutiny (1954). He portrayed prisoner Joe
Burdette in Rio Bravo (starring John Wayne, Ricky Nelson, Dean Martin,
and Angie Dickinson), Naval Lt. Commander Farber in Don't Give Up the
Ship (starring Jerry Lewis), Sgt Kolowicz in Merrill's Marauders,
Rockwell W. "Rocky" Rockman in The Devil's Brigade, the Reverend
Jeremiah Brown in the movie Inherit the Wind (1960), outlaw Ben Lane
in Comanche Station that same year, Seely Jones in A Distant Trumpet
(1964), and the gorilla leader Aldo in Battle for the Planet of the
Apes (1973), the last original Apes movie.
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