Charles Fredericks

Charles Fredericks (born Fred Cockerham; or Crockenham; September 5, 1918 – May 14, 1970) was an American actor of stage, television, and film.

Early years Fredericks was born Fred Cockerham (or Crockenham) the son of a Presbyterian minister M. O. Cockerham and his wife. He had two brothers.

Career Fredericks was particularly known for his career in television Westerns during the 1950s and 1960s.

Singing Fredericks debuted as a professional singer at the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver. After two weeks when the orchestra leader paid him $5 per week out of his own pocket, the hotel manager raised his salary to $20 per week. He went from that job to performing in vaudeville at $75 per week — an unsuccessful venture that led him back to Denver. With no employment as a singer available, he worked as a bellhop. He also appeared as Captain Nicholas Gregorovitch in the original 1947 production of Music in My Heart. In 1948, he portrayed a minister in My Romance at the Shubert Theatre in Boston

Among Fredericks's work on television, on Colt .45, he appeared as "Larkin" in the episode "Small Man" (1957) and as Marshal Ed Springer in "The Gandy Dancers".(1960). He portrayed Sheriff Ankers on Bat Masterson in S3E10s "Last Stop To Austin". He also appeared as villains in the Maverick episodes "Trail West to Fury" and "The Maverick Line". He appeared in The Tab Hunter Show episode "For Money or Love" (1960). He also appeared on Gunsmoke as “Band” (1959), as “Jed”, S5E38 1960, as “Senator McGovern” (1962), in S8E15's "False Front" and earlier that year as a convicted soldier in S7E33’s “The Prisoner”.

Personal life Fredericks was married to singer Muriel Parker, and they had two sons.

Partial filmography

Thunder Pass (1954) - McCurdy Port of Hell (1954) Treasure of Ruby Hills (1955) - Walt Payne Tarzan's Hidden Jungle (1955) - DeGroot Las Vegas Shakedown (1955) - Sheriff Charlie Woods Night Freight (1955) - Workman Hell Canyon Outlaws (1957) - Deputy Bear I Want to Live! (1958) - Sucker at Card Game (uncredited) Ice Palace (1960) - Bit Role (uncredited) A Fever in the Blood (1961) - Callahan Party Worker (uncredited) Tender Is the Night (1962) - Mr. Albert Charles McKisco Lad, A Dog (1962) - Sheriff The Cabinet of Caligari (1962) - Bob Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man (1962) - Mayor Black Gold (1962) - Oil Man (uncredited) To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) - Court Clerk (uncredited) Dead Ringer (1964) - Tom Marshall (uncredited) A House Is Not a Home (1964) - Bert Kisses for My President (1964) - Blonde's Escort (uncredited) My Fair Lady (1964) - King George V in Fantasy Sequence (uncredited) The Great Race (1965) - Master of Ceremonies (uncredited)

Television Year Title Role Notes1958 Gunsmoke Earl Brant Season 4 Episode 12: "Grass"1960 Gunsmoke Sergeant Strate Season 5 Episode 38: "The Deserter"1960 Maverick Shotgun Sparks Season 4 Episode 10: "The Maverick Line"1961 Rawhide Banning Season 3 Episode 22: "Incident in the Middle of Nowhere"1963 The Alfred Hitchcock Hour Movie Warden Season 2 Episode 7: "Starring the Defense"1965 The Alfred Hitchcock Hour Big Man Season 3 Episode 15: "Thanatos Palace Hotel"