John Anderson

Acting

John Anderson

Born 1922-10-20 · Clayton, Illinois, USA

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)).

Acting credits

Psycho poster
8.4

When larcenous real estate clerk Marion Crane goes on the lam with a wad of cash and hopes of starting a new life, she ends up at the notorious Bates Motel, where manager Norman Bates cares for his housebound mother.

Psycho

1960

Smokey and the Bandit II poster
5.5

The Bandit goes on another cross-country run, transporting an elephant from Florida to Texas. And, once again, Sheriff Buford T. Justice is on his tail.

Smokey and the Bandit II

1980

Ride the High Country poster
7.1

An ex-lawman is hired to transport gold from a mining community through dangerous territory. But what he doesn't realize is that his partner and old friend is plotting to double-cross him.

Ride the High Country

1962

Last Train from Gun Hill poster
7.1

A marshal tries to bring the son of an old friend, an autocratic cattle baron, to justice for the rape and murder of his wife.

Last Train from Gun Hill

1959

The Satan Bug poster
6.1

A US government germ warfare lab has had an accident. The first theory is that one of the germs has been released and killed several scientists. The big fear is that a more virulent strain, named The Satan Bug because all life can be killed off by it should it escape, may have been stolen.

The Satan Bug

1965

Heatwave! poster
6.1

A devastating heatwave hits the Los Angeles area and a young expecting couple try to evade it by escaping to a mountain resort town.

Heatwave!

1974

Soldier Blue poster
6.8

After a cavalry group is massacred by the Cheyenne, only two survivors remain: Honus, a naive private devoted to his duty, and Cresta, a young woman who had lived with the Cheyenne two years and whose sympathies lie more with them than with the US government. Together, they must try to reach the cavalry's main base camp. As they travel onward, Honus is torn between his growing affection for Cresta.

Soldier Blue

1970

The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel poster
6.7

The life and career of Erwin Rommel and his involvement in the plot to assassinate Hitler.

The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel

1951

The Fortune Cookie poster
7.2

TV cameraman Harry Hinkle is injured while filming a football game. Seeing big dollar signs, his unscrupulous ambulance-chasing lawyer brother-in-law Willie Gingrich enters the picture, and convinces Harry to overstate his injuries and claim $1 million in pain and suffering. Harry's similarly-minded ex-wife suddenly reappears in an attempt to rekindle their relationship.

The Fortune Cookie

1966

Eight Men Out poster
6.8

Buck Weaver and Hap Felsch are young idealistic players on the Chicago White Sox, a pennant-winning team owned by Charles Comiskey - a penny-pinching, hands-on manager who underpays his players and treats them with disdain. And when gamblers and hustlers discover that Comiskey's demoralized players are ripe for a money-making scheme, one by one the team members agree to throw the World Series. But when the White Sox are defeated, a couple of sports writers smell a fix and a national scandal explodes, ripping the cover off America's favorite pastime.

Eight Men Out

1988

Young Billy Young poster
5.9

A peace-loving man named Ben Kane takes a job as deputy marshal of Lords, in the old West. Kane is no lawman, but he accepts the badge because he has an old score to settle with the town's chief trouble-maker. Once on the job, Kane must also deal with a young sharpshooter named Billy Young and a sharp and sassy saloon dancer, Lily.

Young Billy Young

1969

5 Card Stud poster
6.3

After a card shark is caught cheating, he is taken out and lynched by the drunkards he was playing against. Soon afterwards, the men who were in the lynch mob start being murdered, one after another; all by hanging.

5 Card Stud

1968

The Hallelujah Trail poster
6.1

A wagon train heads for Denver with a cargo of whisky for the miners. Chaos ensues as the Temperance League, the US cavalry, the miners and the local Indians all try to take control of the valuable cargo.

The Hallelujah Trail

1965

American Harvest poster
9.0

American Harvest is set in the heartland of Kansas. Two proud, stubborn families have not spoken to one another because of an incident in the distant past. Wayne Rogers, the patriarch of one of the families, is in danger of losing his wheat farm. He knows that his land will be saved if he patches things up with rival farmer Earl Holliman, but such a reconciliation is out of the question.

American Harvest

1987

Executive Action poster
6.5

Rogue intelligence agents, right-wing politicians, greedy capitalists, and free-lance assassins plot and carry out the JFK assassination in this speculative agitprop.

Executive Action

1973

Geronimo poster
5.5

In 1883, the Apache Indians lead by Geronimo reluctantly surrender to the attacks of American and Mexican troops, in exchange for a territory and food for their warriors. Soon though, Geronimo escapes the camps and declares war against the Americans.

Geronimo

1962

Walk on the Wild Side poster
6.6

At a 1930s New Orleans bordello, Hallie is the main attraction for both clients and the shrewd madam. The arrival of Dove Linkhorn, her lovesick sweetheart from three years ago, disrupts the normal and triggers a chain of events involving a number of people, including the young woman he travelled with, who is now the Doll House's newest employee.

Walk on the Wild Side

1962

A Covenant with Death poster
4.8

An innocent man is found guilty of murder and sentenced to death, but as he's about to be hanged he accidentally kills his executioner. He now faces a new trial, presided over by a young and inexperienced judge.

A Covenant with Death

1967

The Specialist poster
4.7

Jerry Bounds, an upright lawyer, must stand up against Pike Smith and his the water company's efforts to exploit a local lake.

The Specialist

1975

Welcome to Hard Times poster
5.3

A sociopathic stranger all but destroys a small hardscrabble town but the 'mayor' convinces its survivors to stay and rebuild.

Welcome to Hard Times

1967

For the Love of Willadean poster
6.0

A new boy, Harley, joins a club but shows an interest in the girl on whom the club leader has a crush. The two club members trick Harley into stealing a prize watermelon to the dismay of the furious farmer, and later dare him to enter a supposedly haunted house in which they uncover a bag of money stolen in a bank robbery.

For the Love of Willadean

1964

Daddy poster
4.8

Oliver Watson has never been luckier: he is a successful advertising executive, shares a marriage of eighteen years with Sarah and has three loving kids: 17-year-old Ben, 15-year-old Melissa, and 9-year-old Sam. His perfect life suddenly falls apart when his wife Sarah announces that she wants to enter a graduate school 200 miles away from home, as she regrets that she gave up her bohemian protester's life and promising writing career to become the wife of a conservative traditionalist. Oliver unsuccessfully tries to save his marriage, until Sarah announces that she is seeing someone else. The children start acting out as a reaction and life is complicated by the death of Oliver’s mother and accepts a job in L.A. where he falls in love with Charlotte Sampson. Life again challenges Oliver when Charlotte is offered her dream job on Broadway.

Daddy

1991

The Stepmother poster
4.1

Returning home from a business trip, an architect assumes that a client is having an affair with his wife and murders the man. His feelings of guilt and attempts to conceal the crime lead to more complications and death.

The Stepmother

1972

Day of the Evil Gun poster
6.2

Returning home after disappearing three years ago, former gunslinger Lorn Warfield finds that an Apache raiding party has kidnapped his wife and children. Though he has renounced violence, he now takes up his gun and joins forces with his neighbor, Owen Forbes. Complicating matters, Forbes is engaged to Warfield's wife, who believed her husband was dead. As they pursue the Apaches, the two men are joined by an Indian trader, Jimmy Noble.

Day of the Evil Gun

1968