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Charles Drake (actor)

{{short description|American actor}}

{{About|the American actor|the British actor|Charlie Drake}}

{{other people|Charles Drake}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Charles Drake

| image = Charles Drake in Winning Your Wings (1942).jpg

| image_size =

| caption = Drake in Winning Your Wings (1942)

| birth_name = Charles Ruppert

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1917|10|02}}

| birth_place = New York City, U.S.

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1994|09|10|1917|10|02}}

| death_place = East Lyme, Connecticut, U.S.

| occupation = Actor

| years_active = 1939–1976

| alma_mater = Nichols College

}}

Charles Drake (born Charles Ruppert;{{Cite book |last=Room |first=Adrian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eSIhzKnNUf4C&dq=%22Charles+Drake%22+%22Ruppert%22&pg=PA153 |title=Dictionary of Pseudonyms: 13,000 Assumed Names and Their Origins, 5th ed. |date=2014-01-10 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-5763-2 |pages=153 |language=en}} October 2, 1917 – September 10, 1994) was an American actor.

Biography

Drake was born in New York City. He graduated from Nichols College and became a salesman.{{cite news|title=Charles Drake; Versatile Film and TV Actor|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-09-18-mn-40216-story.html|access-date=April 28, 2016|work=Los Angeles Times|date=September 18, 1994}} In 1939, he turned to acting and signed a contract with Warner Bros., but he was not immediately successful. Drake served in the U.S. Army during World War II. Drake returned to Hollywood in 1945 and was cast in Conflict which starred Humphrey Bogart. His contract with Warner Brothers eventually ended. In the 1940s, he did some freelance film work, including A Night in Casablanca (1946) starring the Marx Brothers.{{Cite book |last=Weir |first=Robert E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fz6DEAAAQBAJ |title=The Marx Brothers and America: Where Film, Comedy and History Collide |date=2022-08-12 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-1-4766-4872-9 |pages=198 |language=en}}

In 1949, he moved to Universal Studios, where he co-starred with James Stewart and Shelley Winters in Winchester '73 (1950) and again co-starred with Stewart in the film Harvey (1950) a screen adaptation of the Broadway play. He co-starred in the Audie Murphy biopic To Hell and Back (1955), as Murphy's close friend, "Brandon".

In 1955, Drake turned to television as one of the stock-company players on Montgomery's Summer Stock, a summer replacement for Robert Montgomery Presents,Terrace, Vincent (2011). Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010. McFarland & Company, Inc. {{ISBN|978-0-7864-6477-7}}. P. 713. and from 1957 he hosted the syndicated TV espionage weekly Schilling Playhouse (also known as Rendezvous).{{cite book|last1=Shearer|first1=Stephen|title=Patricia Neal: An Unquiet Life|date=2006|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|isbn=0813171369|page=[https://archive.org/details/patricianealunqu00shea/page/202 202]|url=https://archive.org/details/patricianealunqu00shea|url-access=registration|quote=Charles Drake actor.|accessdate=25 December 2016|language=en}} In 1956 Drake appeared as Tom Sweeny with Murphy and Anne Bancroft in Walk the Proud Land.

Drake teamed again with Audie Murphy, for the Western film No Name on the Bullet (1959), which featured Murphy in a rare villainous role as a hired assassin and Drake playing a small-town doctor trying to stop his reign of terror.

On November 14, 1961, Drake played state line boss Allen Winter in the episode "The Accusers" of NBC's Laramie Western series. On February 6, 1963, Drake played Hollister in the Wagon Train episode "The Hollister John Garrison Story".{{Cite book |last=Kalantari |first=Kianosh |url=https://www.academia.edu/30554123 |title=Cold War Modernists}} He also played Charles Maury in "The Charles Maury Story" in 1958, Season 1, episode 32.

Drake played the part of Oliver Greer in The Fugitive episode "The One That Got Away" (1967). He guest-starred in the fourth season (1968–1969) of NBC's Daniel Boone as Simon Jarvis. In 1969, Drake appeared as Milo Cantrell on the TV series The Virginian in the episode titled "A Woman of Stone." In 1970, he appeared as Randolf in "The Men From Shiloh" (the rebranded name of The Virginian) in the episode titled "Jenny." He played in eighty-three films between 1939 and 1975, including Scream, Pretty Peggy. More than fifty were dramas, but he also acted in comedies, science fiction, horror, and film noir. In an episode of the original Star Trek series ("The Deadly Years", 1967), Drake guest-starred as Commodore Stocker.{{Cite web |date=2019-12-21 |title=Obituaries in the Performing Arts, 1999: Film, Television, Radio, Theatre, Dance, Music, Cartoons and Pop Culture [Revised] 0786409193, 9780786409198, 9780786452040 |url=https://ebin.pub/obituaries-in-the-performing-arts-1999-film-television-radio-theatre-dance-music-cartoons-and-pop-culture-revised-0786409193-9780786409198-9780786452040.html |access-date=2024-04-12 |website=ebin.pub |language=en}}

Drake died on September 10, 1994, in East Lyme, Connecticut, at the age of 76.{{cite news|title=Charles Drake Dies; Film Actor Was 76|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/16/arts/charles-drake-dies-film-actor-was-76.html|accessdate=April 27, 2016|work=New York Times|date=September 16, 1994}}

Selected filmography

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References

{{Portal|Television|Film}}

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External links

{{Commons category}}

  • {{IMDb name|236866}}
  • {{IBDB name}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Drake, Charles}}

Category:1917 births

Category:1994 deaths

Category:20th-century American male actors

Category:American male film actors

Category:American male stage actors

Category:American male television actors

Category:Male actors from New York City

Category:Military personnel from New York City

Category:Military personnel from New York (state)

Category:Nichols College alumni

Category:United States Army personnel of World War II

Category:Western (genre) television actors