Bert Freed Movies
Character actor
Bert Freed prepared for his theatrical career at Penn State. Freed made his first Broadway appearance in the forgotten 1942 production Johnny 2 X 4, then went on to such long-running efforts as Counterattack,
One Touch of Venus and
Annie Get Your Gun. In films from 1947, he was most often cast as big-city detectives and small-town sheriffs. Some of his more memorable movie roles include Sgt. Boulanger in
Paths of Glory (1957),
Christopher Jones' institutionalized father in
Wild in the Streets (1968), and all-around meanie Stuart Posner in
Billy Jack (1969). A busy television actor, Freed settled down to a weekly-series grind only once, as Rufe Ryker on the 1966 video version of Shane. Outside of his performing activities, Bert Freed was for many years a member of the Motion Picture Academy's Committee of Foreign Films. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide