Charles Drake

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This article is about the American character actor Charles Drake (né Ruppert), not to be confused with the British writer and performer Charlie Drake (né Springall).

Charles Drake (real name Charles Ruppert, born October 2, 1917 in New York City – died September 10, 1994 in East Lyme, Connecticut) was an American actor.

[edit] Biography

Drake graduated from Nichols College and became a salesman. In 1939 he turned to acting and signed a contract with Warner Brothers. He wasn't immediately successful. World War II interrupted his career; soon after his military service was complete, Drake returned to Hollywood in 1945, his contract with Warner Brothers ended. In the 1940s, he did some freelance work, like A Night in Casablanca. In 1949 he moved to Universal Studios. In 1955, Drake turned to television as one of the stock-company players on Robert Montgomery Presents and three years later he became the host of the British TV espionage weekly Rendezvous. In 1959, he starred in the Western film, No Name on the Bullet, where he played a doctor dedicated to saving a small town from a dangerous assassin. He played in 83 films between 1939 and 1975. Over fifty of them were dramas, but he also acted in comedies, science fiction, horror and film noir.