Charles Drake (actor)

Charles Drake (born Charles Ruppert; October 2, 1917 – September 10, 1994) was an American actor.

Drake was born in New York City.

He graduated from Nichols College and became a salesman.

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.

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 the 1940s, he did some freelance work, including A Night in Casablanca (1946).

Drake returned to Hollywood in 1945 and was cast in Conflict which starred Humphrey Bogart.

His contract with Warner Brothers eventually ended.

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 (also 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 and from 1957 he hosted the syndicated TV espionage weekly Schilling Playhouse (also known as Rendezvous).

In 1956 Drake appeared as Tom Sweeny with Murphy and Anne Bancroft in Walk the Proud Land.

He also played Charles Maury in "The Charles Maury Story" in 1958, Season 1, episode 32.

In 1959, he teamed again with Audie Murphy, this time in the Western film No Name on the Bullet, with 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".

Drake played the part of Oliver Greer in The Fugitive episode "The One That Got Away" (1967).

In an episode of the original Star Trek series ("The Deadly Years", 1967), he guested as Commodore Stocker.

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 died on September 10, 1994, in East Lyme, Connecticut, at the age of 76.