Claude Akins Video | Celebrity Interview and Paparazzi

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 served with the US Army Signal Corps in World... MORE

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 served with the US Army Signal Corps in World War II in Burma and the Philippines. After the war, 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. He appeared 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 LESS