Matinee Classics - Charles Drake Biography & Filmography

Charles Drake ACTOR

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CHARLES DRAKE BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:

Charles Drake was born on October 2nd, 1917 in New York City, New York with the birth name Charles Rupert. After high school he earned his college degree from Nichols College in 1937 and first pursued a career in sales before deciding to focus on a acting profession.

He began working as a stage actor and after gaining some experience, Warner Brothers took an interest in him and signed him to a contract. He began adding some un-credited roles to his resume appearing in such films as, "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (1939) starring Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara, "The Maltese Flacon" (1941) starring Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre, Mary Astor and Sydney Greenstreet, "The Man Who Came to Dinner" (1942) starring Bette Davis, Monty Woolley, Ann Sheridan, Reginald Gardiner, Jimmy Durante and Billie Burke, "Now, Voyager" (1942), "Sergeant York" (1941) starring Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan and Frank McHugh and "Yankee Doodle Dandy" (1942) starring James Cagney, Walter Huston, Rosemary DeCamp, George Tobias and Joan Leslie.

Drake then took a break from acting to serve in the United States military during World War II. Upon completing his service, Drake returned to acting and soon Universal Pictures picked him up and he began appearing in more substantial credited film roles. Some of his feature film roles during this point in his career included, "Harvey" (1950) starring James Stewart and Josephine Hull, "You Never Can Tell" (1951) starring Dick Powell, "Winchester '73" (1950) starring James Stewart, Stephen McNally, Dan Duryea, Shelley Winters and Will Geer, "Little Egypt" (1951) starring Mark Stevens, Rhonda Fleming, Tom D'Andrea, Nancy Guild, Minor Watson and John Litel and "Bonzo Goes to College" (1952) starring Ronald Reagan.

In addition to now working as a film actor he also appeared on a number of television series such as, "Robert Montgomery Presents", "The Lucy Show", "Rendezvous", "Kraft Theatre", "Fireside Theatre", "Climax!", "Playhouse 90", "The Law & Mr. Jones", "The Eleventh Hour", "Destry", "Wagon Train", "The Fugitive" starring David Janssen, "Star Trek" starring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley and "Daniel Boone" starring Fess Parker.

Although he added over eighty film roles and a large amount of television roles to his credits, he never managed to reach the level of stardom he hoped for, although, Drake did make a decent living as an actor.

Some of his more recent appearances included the television series, "Caribe", "Cannon" starring William Conrad, "Matt Helm", "McMillan & Wife" starring Rock Hudson and Susan Saint James and his last film role in 1983 on, "My Brother's Wedding".

Charles Drake passed away at the age of seventy six on September 10th, 1994 in East Lyme, Connecticut.