Loading amazing content...
Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Birthday
November 3, 1919
Died
August 2, 1994
Place of Birth
The Bronx, New York USA
Bert Freed
0.5 Popularity
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Bert Freed (November 3, 1919 — August 2, 1994) was a prolific American character actor, voice over actor, and the first actor to portray "Detective Columbo" on television. Born and raised in The Bronx, New York, Freed began acting while attending Penn State University, and made his Broadway debut in 1942. Following World War II Army service in the European Theatre, he appeared in the Broadway musical The Day Before Spring in 1945 and dozens of television shows between 1947 and 1985. His film debut occurred, oddly enough, in a musical Carnegie Hall (1947). A prominent role was as the villainous Ryker in the television series Shane, in which Freed added a unique touch of realism by beginning the show clean-shaven and growing a beard from one week to the next, never shaving again through the season. Freed played Columbo in a live 1960 episode of the "Chevy Mystery Theatre" seven years before Peter Falk played the role. Thomas Mitchell also played the part on stage prior to Falk's version, which is probably where many of the eccentric Columbo traits originated; only a few were visible in Freed's straightforward interpretation, although the character as played by Freed is recognizably Columbo. He appeared (sometimes more than once) in television shows such as The Rifleman, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, The Big Valley,The Virginian, Mannix, Barnaby Jones, Charlie's Angels, Then Came Bronson, Run For Your Life, Get Smart, The Lucy Show, Hogan's Heroes, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Dr. Kildare, Ben Casey, Perry Mason, Combat!, Petticoat Junction, The Outer Limits, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Route 66, Ironside, The Green Hornet, The Munsters, and many, many more. He directed one episode of T.H.E. Cat. Freed appeared as a racist club owner in No Way Out (1950), a gangster in Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town (1950), a Marine private in Halls of Montezuma (1951 film), an Army sergeant in Take the High Ground! (1953), the Police Chief in Invaders From Mars (1953), Sgt. Boulanger in Paths of Glory (1957), the hangman in Hang 'Em High (1968), Max's father in Wild in the Streets (1968), as Chief of Detectives in Madigan (1968), a homosexual prison guard in There Was a Crooked Man... (1970) and Bernard's father in Billy Jack (1971) in which he got "whumped" on the side of the face by Billy Jack's right foot "just for the hell of it." He retired from acting in 1986, and died of a heart attack in Canada in 1994 while on a fishing trip with his son. Description above from the Wikipedia article Bert Freed, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known For
Credits
Are You My Mother?
as Bert
1986
0.0
Knight Rider
as Anthony Solan
1982
7.5
The Fall Guy
1981
7.5
🎬
Charlie and the Great Balloon Chase
as Carlo
1981
0.0
Skag
as Bishop
1980
0.0
Norma Rae
as Sam Dakin
1979
7.2
Barracuda
as Jack
1978
4.1
Vega$
1978
7.0
🎬
Till Death
as Dr. Sawyer
1978
6.3
In the Matter of Karen Ann Quinlan
as Dr. Julius Korein
1977
8.2
Love and the Midnight Auto Supply
as Mayor John Randolph
1977
2.7
Charlie's Angels
as Stambler
1976
6.7
Death Scream
as Det. Ross
1975
6.6
Bronk
1975
6.2
Kolchak: The Night Stalker
as Capt. Akins
1974
7.6
Paper Moon
1974
6.5
Lincoln
as Edwin Stanton
1974
8.0
Incident at Vichy
as Marchand, A Businessman
1973
0.0
Police Story
1973
6.9
Barnaby Jones
as Det. Capt. Ben Wyatt
1973
6.9
The Streets of San Francisco
1972
7.0
The Rookies
1972
6.8
The Sixth Sense
1972
5.9
Cannon
1971
6.6
Evel Knievel
as Doc Kincaid
1971
4.8
Billy Jack
as Mr. Stuart Posner
1971
5.9
Breakout
as Fletcher
1970
0.0
The Partridge Family
as Mr. Sharp
1970
6.8
There Was a Crooked Man...
as Skinner
1970
6.8
The Andersonville Trial
as Board of Military Judges
1970
6.7
McCloud
1970
7.1
Then Came Bronson
as Editor Carson
1969
4.1
The Mod Squad
1968
6.2
Lancer
1968
4.7
The Outsider
1968
5.2
Wild in the Streets
as Max Jacob Flatow, Sr.
1968
5.8
Hang 'em High
as Schmidt
1968
6.8
Madigan
as Chief of Detectives Hap Lynch
1968
6.1
P.J.
as Police Lieutenant
1968
5.2
Mannix
1967
6.7
The High Chaparral
as Telford Burris
1967
6.6
The Guns of Will Sonnett
1967
6.2
Ironside
1967
6.8
The Swinger
as Police Captain
1966
5.2
Mission: Impossible
as Leon Chandler
1966
7.6
Mission: Impossible
as Gen. Brenner
1966
7.6
Shane
as Rufe Ryker
1966
6.0
The Green Hornet
as Police Sgt. Bert Clark
1966
7.2
Tarzan
1966
6.7
Nevada Smith
as Quince
1966
6.7
Get Smart
1965
7.9
The Loner
1965
5.7
Hogan's Heroes
as Maj. Bernsdorf
1965
7.5
The Big Valley
as Judge Ben Coulter
1965
6.1
The Big Valley
as Henry Marvin
1965
6.1
The Big Valley
as Homer Roberts
1965
6.1
Run for Your Life
as Sheriff Parsons
1965
7.2
Fate Is the Hunter
as Dillon
1964
6.6
Invitation to a Gunfighter
as Sheriff
1964
5.9
The Munsters
1964
7.9
Shock Treatment
as Frank Josephson
1964
6.7
Twilight of Honor
as Sheriff Buck Wheeler
1963
6.1
🎬
Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre
1963
5.7
Petticoat Junction
as Detective Horton
1963
5.7
Mr. Novak
as Lorimer
1963
6.5
The Outer Limits
as Joe Hayden
1963
7.8
Arrest and Trial
1963
7.7
The Dakotas
1963
5.7
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
as Ben Golden
1962
7.9
Combat!
as Sgt. Weber
1962
7.7
The Lucy Show
as Miller
1962
7.0
The Virginian
as Milo Henderson
1962
6.4
The Virginian
as Jason Ainsworth
1962
6.4
Ben Casey
1961
5.6
Target: The Corruptors!
1961
3.5
Dr. Kildare
as Dr. Donald White
1961
5.5
Dr. Kildare
as Director
1961
5.5
Cain's Hundred
as Dave Reed
1961
4.7
Route 66
1960
6.3
The Subterraneans
as Bartender
1960
4.8
Why Must I Die
as Adler
1960
5.0
🎬
The Chevy Mystery Show
as Lt. Columbo
1960
6.3
The Gazebo
as Lt. Jenkins
1960
6.9
The Detectives
1959
6.1
Adventures in Paradise
as Michael Dannora
1959
5.7
Bourbon Street Beat
1959
5.0
Law of the Plainsman
as Benson
1959
6.0
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis
1959
6.0
The DuPont Show with June Allyson
as Lieutenant
1959
6.3
Riverboat
as Kester
1959
6.2
Johnny Staccato
1959
5.0
Tightrope
1959
5.5
77 Sunset Strip
1958
6.7
Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse
1958
5.8
The Rifleman
1958
7.1
The Plot to Kill Stalin
as Sokolovsky
1958
0.0
Peter Gunn
1958
6.4
The Goddess
as Lester Brackman
1958
5.6
Paths of Glory
as Sgt. Boulanger
1957
8.3
Decoy
as Lieutenant Rosenberg
1957
6.4
Perry Mason
as Ken Woodman
1957
7.7
Perry Mason
as Harry Parker
1957
7.7
Perry Mason
as Carl Holman
1957
7.7
Perry Mason
as Joe Marshall
1957
7.7
The Thin Man
1957
7.5
Unidentified Flying Objects: The True Story of Flying Saucers
as Dayton Colonel
1956
5.8
The Desperate Hours
as Tom Winston
1955
7.0
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
as Capt. Harvey Ellison
1955
7.8
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
as Cooper
1955
7.8
Gunsmoke
as Al Clovis
1955
6.6
Gunsmoke
as Chris Thornton
1955
6.6
The Cobweb
as Abe Irwin
1955
5.6
The Millionaire
as M / Sgt. Matthew Brogan
1955
5.0
The Strike
as Chick
1954
7.5
Men of the Fighting Lady
as Lt. (jg) Andrew Szymanski
1954
6.2
The Long, Long Trailer
as Foreman
1954
6.9
Take the High Ground!
as Sgt. Vince Opperman
1953
5.9
Invaders from Mars
as Police Chief A.C. Barrows
1953
5.9
Tangier Incident
as Kozad
1953
5.0
General Electric Theater
as Mitch Green
1953
6.4
General Electric Theater
as Armstrong
1953
6.4
The Snows of Kilimanjaro
as American Soldier (uncredited)
1952
5.9
The Atomic City
as Emil Jablons
1952
5.4
Hallmark Hall of Fame
as Pete Johnson
1951
8.6
Red Mountain
as Sgt. Randall
1951
6.4
Detective Story
as Det. Dakis
1951
7.0
The Company She Keeps
as Smitty
1951
5.9
Halls of Montezuma
as Slattery
1951
5.9
No Way Out
as Rocky Miller (uncredited)
1950
6.9
Where the Sidewalk Ends
as Det. Sgt. Paul Klein
1950
7.2
711 Ocean Drive
as Steve Marshak (uncredited)
1950
6.3
Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town
as Dutch (Third New York Henchman)
1950
6.1
Key to the City
as Emmy's Husband
1950
6.2
Studio One
as Chick
1948
5.0
Studio One
as Malone
1948
5.0
Studio One
as Mike Jannis
1948
5.0
Studio One
as Lt. Burke
1948
5.0
The Philco Television Playhouse
as Al Rago
1948
6.3
The Philco Television Playhouse
1948
6.3
Boomerang!
as Herron, a Man in Alley Mob
1947
7.0