John Anderson
Acting • Born 1922-10-20 – Died 1992-08-07
Biography
John Robert Anderson (October 20, 1922 – August 7, 1992) A tall, sinewy, austere-looking character actor with silver hair, rugged features and a distinctive voice, John Robert Anderson appeared in hundreds of films and television episodes. Immensely versatile, he was at his best submerging himself in the role of historical figures (he impersonated Abraham Lincoln three times and twice baseball commissioner Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, men whom he strongly resembled). He was a familiar presence in westerns and science-fiction serials, usually as upstanding, dignified and generally benign citizens (a rare exception was his Ebonite interrogator in The Outer Limits (1963) episode "Nightmare"). He had a high opinion of Rod Serling and was proud to be featured in four episodes of The Twilight Zone (1959), most memorably as the tuxedo-clad angel Gabriel in "A Passage for Trumpet" (doing for Jack Klugman what Henry Travers did for James Stewart in It's a Wonderful Life (1946)).
Filmography
224 credits
Psycho
Movie • 1960
California Charlie
Heaven with a Gun
Movie • 1969
Ase Beck
5 Card Stud
Movie • 1968
Marshal Dana
The Satan Bug
Movie • 1965
Agent Reagan
Eight Men Out
Movie • 1988
Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis
I-Man
Movie • 1986
Holbrook
Executive Action
Movie • 1973
Halliday
Soldier Blue
Movie • 1970
Col. Iverson
Ride the High Country
Movie • 1962
Elder Hammond
Geronimo
Movie • 1962
Jeremiah Burns
Scalplock
Movie • 1966
Standish
Young Billy Young
Movie • 1969
Boone
24 Hour Psycho
Movie • 1993
California Charlie (archive footage)
Namu, the Killer Whale
Movie • 1966
Joe Clausen
Zoot Suit
Movie • 1981
Judge F.W. Charles
Smile Jenny, You're Dead
Movie • 1974
Col. John Lockport
The Animals
Movie • 1970
Sheriff Allan Pierce
The Stepmother
Movie • 1972
Inspector Darnezi
The Lincoln Conspiracy
Movie • 1977
Abraham Lincoln
Manhunter
Movie • 1974
Aaron Denver
The Force of Evil
Movie • 1977
Sheriff John Carrington
The Great Bank Robbery
Movie • 1969
Mayor Kincaid
Man and Boy
Movie • 1971
Stretch
In Broad Daylight
Movie • 1991
Wes Westerman
Welcome to Hard Times
Movie • 1967
Ezra Maple / Isaac Maple
The Quest
Movie • 1976
Army Officer
Daddy
Movie • 1991
George Watson
A Covenant with Death
Movie • 1967
Dietrich
Follow Your Heart
Movie • 1990
Josh Lowe
Last Train from Gun Hill
Movie • 1959
Salesman
In Search of Historic Jesus
Movie • 1979
Caiaphas
Heatwave!
Movie • 1974
Toler
The Dark Side of Innocence
Movie • 1976
Stephen Hancock
Molly and Lawless John
Movie • 1972
Sheriff Marvin Parker
Set This Town on Fire
Movie • 1973
Henry Kealey
The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel
Movie • 1951
A Man Called Gannon
Movie • 1968
Capper
The Wackiest Ship in the Army
Movie • 1960
Sailor (uncredited)
The Fortune Cookie
Movie • 1966
Abraham Lincoln (uncredited)
Smokey and the Bandit II
Movie • 1980
Governor
Missing Children: A Mother's Story
Movie • 1982
Stanley Willard
Peter Lundy and the Medicine Hat Stallion
Movie • 1977
Alexander Majors
The Last Hurrah
Movie • 1977
Amos Force
Day of the Evil Gun
Movie • 1968
Captain Jefferson Addis
The Andersonville Trial
Movie • 1970
Ambrose Spencer
Cotton Comes to Harlem
Movie • 1970
Capt. Bryce
The True Story of Lynn Stuart
Movie • 1958
Doc
The Specialist
Movie • 1975
Pike Smith
The Dove
Movie • 1974
Mike Turk
Wyatt Earp: Return to Tombstone
Movie • 1994
Virgil Earp (flashback sequence) (archive footage)
Babe Ruth
Movie • 1991
Judge Landis
Never Too Young to Die
Movie • 1986
Arliss
The Hallelujah Trail
Movie • 1965
Sgt. Buell
Full Exposure: The Sex Tapes Scandal
Movie • 1989
George Dutton
Deadly Innocents
Movie • 1989
Gus
Counselor at Crime
Movie • 1973
Don Vito Albanese
Call to Danger
Movie • 1973
Edward McClure
Walk on the Wild Side
Movie • 1962
Preacher
American Harvest
Movie • 1987
Judge Meriweather
Donner Pass: The Road to Survival
Movie • 1978
Patrick Breen
The Deerslayer
Movie • 1978
Hutter
Sins of the Past
Movie • 1984
Rev. Donald Randolph
Scorpion
Movie • 1986
Noel G. Koch
Bed of Lies
Movie • 1992
Price Daniel, Sr.
For the Love of Willadean
Movie • 1964
Farmer Wills
Bridger
Movie • 1976
President Andrew Jackson
Out of the Blue
Movie • 1981
T.V. Interviewer
Dead Man on the Run
Movie • 1975
Jason Monroe
Hitched
Movie • 1973
Jomer Cruett
The First Time
Movie • 1982
Paul Cooper
Rebel Range
Movie
Fisk Madden
Lincoln: Trial by Fire
Movie • 1974
President Lincoln
Death Among Friends
Movie • 1975
Capt. Lewis
M*A*S*H
TV • 1972
General Collins
Cheyenne
TV • 1955
Trackdown
TV • 1957
Cain's Hundred
TV • 1961
Kenneth Drake
Tenspeed and Brown Shoe
TV • 1980
Star Trek: The Next Generation
TV • 1987
Kevin Uxbridge
Kung Fu
TV • 1972
Jack Youngblood
The Great Adventure
TV • 1963
Colonel Knowlton
Little House on the Prairie
TV • 1974
Kraft Suspense Theatre
TV • 1963
Rankin
The F.B.I.
TV • 1965
Adam MacDonald
Silver Spoons
TV • 1982
Captain Stark
Matlock
TV • 1986
Sam Chandler
Hawaii Five-O
TV • 1968
Brig. General Earl Rigney
Route 66
TV • 1960
The Bob Newhart Show
TV • 1972
The Twilight Zone
TV • 1959
Goldsmith
The Twilight Zone
TV • 1959
Capt. 'Skipper' Farver
The Twilight Zone
TV • 1959
Deidrich
Scarecrow and Mrs. King
TV • 1983
MacGyver
TV • 1985
Harry Jackson
Quantum Leap
TV • 1989
Pat Knight
Gunsmoke
TV • 1955
Ben Siple
Perry Mason
TV • 1957
George Andrews
Hart to Hart
TV • 1979
Lassie
TV • 1954
Voyagers!
TV • 1982
Cannon
TV • 1971
Hallmark Hall of Fame
TV • 1951
Hunter
TV • 1984
Winston Taggert
The Twilight Zone
TV • 1959
Gabriel
Backstairs at the White House
TV • 1979
Pres. Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Dallas
TV • 1978
Dr. Herbert Styles
Sea Hunt
TV • 1958
The Tall Man
TV • 1960
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
TV • 1955
Nicholson
87th Precinct
TV • 1961
Redigo
TV • 1963
The Quest
TV • 1976
Outlaws
TV • 1960
Aaron's Way
TV • 1988
Rawhide
TV • 1959
Captain James Rankin
Have Gun, Will Travel
TV • 1957
Cimarron Strip
TV • 1967
The Fugitive
TV • 1963
Justin Briggs
The Virginian
TV • 1962
Major Cass
Lancer
TV • 1968
Thriller
TV • 1960
Jacob Grant
Yancy Derringer
TV • 1958
Wayne Raven
Peter Gunn
TV • 1958
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp
TV • 1955
Matt Houston
TV • 1982
Richard Diamond, Private Detective
TV • 1957
Paul Russell
The Big Valley
TV • 1965
Matt Bentell
Here Come the Brides
TV • 1968
Adventures in Paradise
TV • 1959
Benson
Bronco
TV • 1958
Tarzan
TV • 1966
The Sixth Sense
TV • 1972
Occasional Wife
TV • 1966
Black Saddle
TV • 1959
Clyde Wicker
Wanted: Dead or Alive
TV • 1958
Deputy Sheriff Fix
The Rifleman
TV • 1958
The Rebel
TV • 1959
Ezra Taber
Ben Casey
TV • 1961
Bat Masterson
TV • 1958
Major Liam Mars
Laramie
TV • 1959
The Rat Patrol
TV • 1966
Major Indrus
Law of the Plainsman
TV • 1959
Clyde Santee
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
TV • 1956
Fisk Madden
The Detectives
TV • 1959
Heart of the City
TV • 1986
Warren
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
TV • 1956
Roy Kelsey
Quinn Martin's Tales of the Unexpected
TV • 1977
Floyd Carrington
Stoney Burke
TV • 1962
Johnny Ringo
TV • 1959
Cartwright
The Legend of Jesse James
TV • 1965
Moss Canby
Annie McGuire
TV • 1988
Dr. Kildare
TV • 1961
Vernon Hackett
The Walter Winchell File
TV • 1957
The Outer Limits
TV • 1963
Ebonite Interrogator
The Fugitive
TV • 1963
Ed Shrader
Panic!
TV • 1957
Dream West
TV • 1986
Brig. Gen. Brooke
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
TV • 1956
Marshal Cal Lazenby
North and South
TV • 1985
William Hazard
Law of the Plainsman
TV • 1959
Matthew Bannock
Rawhide
TV • 1959
Maj. Cantwell
The F.B.I.
TV • 1965
Bollin
Gunsmoke
TV • 1955
Delliver
Gunsmoke
TV • 1955
Yermo
The Virginian
TV • 1962
Adam Tercell
The Virginian
TV • 1962
Jeremiah Chilton
The Virginian
TV • 1962
Deputy Sheriff Sam Morrell
The Virginian
TV • 1962
Sam McLain
Law of the Plainsman
TV • 1959
Jeb Wicken
Gunsmoke
TV • 1955
Cheevers
Gunsmoke
TV • 1955
Pa Gibbijohn
Gunsmoke
TV • 1955
Les McConnell
Gunsmoke
TV • 1955
Roberts
Gunsmoke
TV • 1955
Jess Fletcher
Gunsmoke
TV • 1955
Amos Sadler
Gunsmoke
TV • 1955
Lemuel Cleary
Gunsmoke
TV • 1955
Adam Kimbro
Harrigan and Son
TV • 1960
Earl
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
TV • 1956
John Duncan
Rich Man, Poor Man - Book II
TV • 1976
Scotty
Perry Mason
TV • 1957
Bud Ferrand
The Rat Patrol
TV • 1966
Gen. Owen Lansbury
Perry Mason
TV • 1957
Dan O'Malley
Quincy, M.E.
TV • 1976
Justin DeWilde
The Rifleman
TV • 1958
Samuel Gibbs
Bearcats!
TV • 1971
Judge Juan O'Brien
Hallmark Hall of Fame
TV • 1951
Amos Force
The Virginian
TV • 1962
Seth James
The Rockford Files
TV • 1974
Gerald A. O'Malley
Jake and the Fatman
TV • 1987
Ace Thompson
Murder, She Wrote
TV • 1984
Andrew Dixon
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp
TV • 1955
Virgil Earp
Kung Fu
TV • 1972
Wray
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
TV • 1955
Attendant
Quincy, M.E.
TV • 1976
Chief Frank Ollano
Emergency!
TV • 1972
Captain Bob Roberts
My Favorite Martian
TV • 1963
Capt. Farrow
The Incredible Hulk
TV • 1977
Mike Calahan
Quincy, M.E.
TV • 1976
Movie Director
Stagecoach West
TV • 1960
Cole Dawson
The Westerner
TV • 1960
Leth Ritchie
Bonanza
TV • 1959
Sam Masters
The Rifleman
TV • 1958
Owny Kincaid
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
TV • 1962
Luke Hunter
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
TV • 1962
Adam
Kung Fu
TV • 1972
Benjamin Dundee
Bonanza
TV • 1959
Gorman
Trackdown
TV • 1957
McCall
Bret Maverick
TV • 1981
General Frye
The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo
TV • 1979
Col. Clayborn
Bronk
TV • 1975
Colonel Hecker
Inside Detective
TV • 1950
Theater manager
Lou Grant
TV • 1977
Russell Grainger
Peter Loves Mary
TV • 1960
Bill Horton
Sam Benedict
TV • 1962
James Bradley
Petrocelli
TV • 1974
Joshua Forbes
Have Gun, Will Travel
TV • 1957
Fred Cooley
Mannix
TV • 1967
George Blake
The Lieutenant
TV • 1963
Joe Hammond
Lawman
TV • 1958
Hassayampa Edwards
$weepstake$
TV • 1979
Thomas Singer
Sam Benedict
TV • 1962
Jim Bradley
Felony Squad
TV • 1966
Lt. Mike Reineck
Steve Canyon
TV • 1958
Sergeant Bulla