Claude Akins


Claude Aubrey Akins was an American character actor with a long career on stage, screen, and television. He was best known as Sheriff Lobo on the 1979–1981 television series B. J. and the Bear, and later The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo, a spin-off series.

Early years

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.

Film career

As a film actor, Akins first appeared in From Here to Eternity. He appeared as a seaman and shipmate of Lee Marvin's in The Caine Mutiny. He portrayed prisoner Joe Burdette in Rio Bravo, Naval Lt. Commander Farber in Don't Give Up the Ship, 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, outlaw Ben Lane in Comanche Station that same year, Seely Jones in A Distant Trumpet, and the gorilla leader Aldo in Battle for the Planet of the Apes, the last original Apes movie.
He had a small part in The Sea Chase with John Wayne. He appeared with Yul Brynner and Robert Fuller in the film Return of the Seven , and also appeared in the movie Seasons of the Heart.

Television

Akins was cast in a large number of television series, including The Adventures of Superman, in which he plays a villainous conspirator, Crusader, and I Love Lucy in which he portrays himself. Much of his work was on Westerns, including Frontier, My Friend Flicka, Boots and Saddles, Northwest Passage, The Restless Gun, Sheriff of Cochise, Wagon Train, Overland Trail, Frontier Circus, The Tall Man, The Rebel, The Big Valley, Daniel Boone, The Legend of Jesse James, Death Valley Days, Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre, The Rifleman, Rawhide, Gunsmoke, Bonanza, The Alaskans and The Texan.
He appeared once on Richard Diamond, Private Detective, Empire, Laredo, the syndicated series, Pony Express, and The Oregon Trail, with Rod Taylor. He was cast as Jarret Sutton in "Escape to Memphis" and as Beaudry Rawlins in "Duel on the River" on Darren McGavin's NBC series, Riverboat.
Akins played a rodeo clown convicted of armed robbery in "Killer on Horseback", an episode of the NBC anthology series Star Stage, which became the pilot episode for the syndicated police drama State Trooper, starring Rod Cameron. The episode was later broadcast on the regular series as "Rodeo Rough House". Beverly Garland also appeared in the episode as Nellie Austin, a sharpshooter. Akins and Garland much later appeared together in the 1963 episode "The Chooser of the Slain" on the ABC/Warner Bros. Western series, The Dakotas.
Among Akins' four appearances on NBC's Laramie with series stars John Smith and Robert Fuller was the role of former Sheriff Jim Dark in the episode "Queen of Diamonds", with Julie London as Dark's estranged wife, a card dealer using the name "June Brown". Dark had foiled a robbery by the Reeves brothers, one of whom was killed, but his right hand was severely injured, and he could no longer handle a gun. June avoided her husband for his own protection when the outlaw brothers pursued them. Clem Reeves was portrayed by Tony Young, later cast as "Cord" in the short-lived Gunslinger series on CBS. Ultimately, the gang was captured, and the Darks were reconciled, leaving Laramie by stagecoach.
Akins was featured in In the Heat of the Night, and two episodes of the original CBS series The Twilight Zone. He also guest-starred in three episodes each of Combat! and The Untouchables.
He appeared on Rod Cameron's early syndicated series, City Detective, Meet McGraw with Frank Lovejoy, the ABC/WB drama, The Roaring 20's, and Police Story.
Akins' other early appearances included a role as a policeman on Alfred Hitchcock Presents in "Place of Shadows" and "Reward to Finder". He played another television cop, good-natured Sheriff's Detective Phillip Dix, in the first season of the Perry Mason in "The Case of the Half-Wakened Wife" that aired March 15, 1958. He was in a first-season episode of Maverick titled "Burial Ground of the Gods" that starred Jack Kelly. In 1965, Akins played El Supremo in "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." episode, "The Very Important Zombie Affair". In 1967, Akins played Lt. Finch in The Lucy Show episode, "Lucy Meets the Law", as he interrogates Lucy as a grand larceny suspect. Lucy is eventually cleared of the crime when the actual redhead confesses to it.
Akins was cast as Lou Myerson in the 1964 episode, "One Monday Afternoon", of the NBC education drama series, Mr. Novak, starring James Franciscus, and as Dr. Roy Kirk in an episode, "When Do They Hang the Good Samaritan?", of the CBS political drama, Slattery's People. Dr. Kirk's sister Lucrezia was played by Barbara Eden. He played a kidnapper in a 1964 episode of The Fugitive. In 1965, he was featured in an episode of Kraft Suspense Theatre, playing a German infiltrator who went unsuspected. Also that year, Akins gave a memorable performance as the head of an Irish immigrant family in The Big Valley. Claude Akins had an earlier role in the first season of Barnaby Jones; episode titled "Murder Go-Round".
Before his signature character Sheriff Lobo, Akins appeared as owner-operator trucker Sonny Pruitt in NBC's Movin' On, from 1974–76, with Frank Converse. Akins starred in over 40 episodes of Movin' On, plus a made-for-TV movie "In Tandem". He also starred as a Nashville police detective, named Stoney Huff, in a short-lived, hour-long crime drama in April 1977 called Nashville 99. Akins' best-known role of Sheriff Elroy P. Lobo had begun as a recurring character on the television series B.J. and the Bear. After becoming a recognizable name in the late 1970s, Akins did testimonial TV commercials for PoliGrip, Rollins Truck Leasing, and AAMCO Transmissions.
Akins found work in the late 1980s lending his voice talents to the work safety instructional video series, Safety Shorts, in which he expounded the virtues of workplace safety to thousands of industrial employees, offering lessons on the importance of lockout/tagout procedures, personal protective equipment, and the MSDS documentation process. Akins made a golfing video with Ron Masak, entitled Tom Kite and Friends.

Death

Akins died of stomach cancer in Pasadena, California.

Legacy

The Claude Akins Memorial Golf Classic, a six-person scramble-format golf tournament, takes place at Otis Park Golf Course in Bedford, Indiana, in August or September of each year.
Proceeds from the event go to the Akins Scholarship and the Bedford Recreation Foundation Scholarship, given every year to a graduating senior at Bedford North Lawrence High School, as well as many projects involving recreation and improvements.

Selected filmography

Film