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.[2]
Film career
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.[3]
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 made 22 appearances on CBS's Perry Mason as one of several judges who regularly presided over the murder trials of Mason's clients from the show's first season in 1957 until his death in 1964. The show ended two years later.
Ankrum appeared in a number of ABC/Warner Brothers westerns. On October 15, 1957, he had a major part in the episode "Strange Land" of the series Sugarfoot, starring Will Hutchins. Ankrum played an embittered rancher named Cash Billings, who allowed hired gunman Burr Fulton ( Rhodes Reason) to take over his spread, but Sugarfoot arrives to bring law and justice to the situation. Ankrum appeared again, as John Savage, in 1959 in the Sugarfoot episode "The Wild Bunch". The same year, he portrayed a zealot who abused his daughter, played by Sherry Jackson, in the episode "The Naked Gallows" of the western Maverick with Jack Kelly and Mike Connors. In 1961, he again played embittered, and this time paralyzed, rancher Cyrus Dawson in the episode "Incident at Dawson Flats" of the western series Cheyenne.
Ankrum was cast in an episode of the 1959 CBS sitcomDennis the Menace. He also made occasional uncredited appearances in several Roger Corman films. While busy in films and television, Ankrum was still involved in live theatre and continued to direct plays at the Pasadena Playhouse.[1]
Personal life
Ankrum and his second wife, Joan Wheeler (married aka Joan Ankrum),[5] had a child, David Ankrum, best known as Adam from Tabitha. David Ankrum eventually became a Hollywood agent. Joan Ankrum, of Joan Ankrum Galleries,[6] became a prominent Los Angeles art dealer[7] with a gallery on La Cienega Boulevard
Death
On September 2, 1964, Ankrum died as the result of trichinosis. At the time of his death, he was still involved with Raymond Burr's Perry Mason TV series.[1][8] His final appearance on Perry Mason, in the episode "The Case of the Sleepy Slayer", and his last feature film, Guns of Diablo, in which he was cast as Ray Macklin, were released in 1964 and 1965, respectively, following Ankrum's death.
Sea Hunt (1 episode, 1958) as Earl Tucker - Head of INS
26 Men (2 episodes, 1958) as Jeff Hubbard / Miles Young
The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin (6 episodes, 1955–1958) as Yellow Wolf / Brig. General Jack Lawrence / Chief Red Eagle / Walking Hawk / Long Dog / Millard Austin
Wagon Train (as Michael Folsom in "The Tobias Jones Story", 1958) as Michael Folsom
Perry Mason (22 episodes, 1957–1964) as Judge / Judge Bates
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↑ Billy Hathorn, "Roy Bean, Temple Houston, Bill Longley, Ranald Mackenzie, Buffalo Bill, Jr., and the Texas Rangers: Depictions of West Texans in Series Television, 1955 to 1967", West Texas Historical Review, Vol. 89 (2013), p. 113
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