Topic: Claude Akins

Claude Marion Akins (May 25, 1926 – January 27, 1994) was an American actor with a long career on stage, screen and television. Powerful in appearance and voice, Akins could be counted on to play the clever (or less than clever) tough guy, on the side of good or bad, in movies and television. He is best remembered as Sheriff Lobo in the 1970s TV series B. J. and the Bear, and later The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo, a spin-off series, with Ben Cooper appearing as Waverly.

Akins was born in Nelson, Georgia, and grew up in Bedford, Indiana. He was a 1949 graduate of Northwestern University, where he studied theatre and became a member of Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity.

As a film actor, Akins first appeared in 1953's From Here to Eternity. In 1954's The Caine Mutiny as a seaman and shipmate of Lee Marvin. He portrayed prisoner Joe Burdette in Rio Bravo (which also starred 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 1960 movie Inherit the Wind, 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, the last original Apes movie in 1973. He was reportedly chosen for this role partly because he did not need the body portion of the ape costume. Small part in the movie sea chase with John Wayne.