Bert Freed

Bert Freed (November 3, 1919 – August 2, 1994) was an American actor born and raised in the Bronx, New York. He began his acting career while a student at Pennsylvania State University and made his Broadway debut in 1942. His stage work spanned fifteen years, with credits including Strip for Action, the musical One Touch of Venus, Joy to the World, the comedy Love on Leave, and the drama Counterattack. After serving in the United States Army in the European theatre during World War II, he returned to the stage and appeared in the Broadway musical The Day Before Spring in 1945.

Freed transitioned into film and television in the late 1940s. His film debut came in the musical Carnegie Hall in 1947, the same year he began what would become nearly four decades of television work. On screen, he took on a wide range of roles across genres, appearing in No Way Out (1950) as a racist club owner, as Private Slattery in Halls of Montezuma (1951), and as the Police Chief in Invaders From Mars (1953). He played Sergeant Boulanger in Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory (1957), the hangman in Hang 'Em High (1968), the Chief of Detectives in Madigan (1968), Max's father in Wild in the Streets (1968), a homosexual prison guard in There Was a Crooked Man... (1970), and Bernard's father in Billy Jack (1971).

Freed holds a notable place in television history as the first actor to portray Detective Frank Columbo, playing homicide detective Lt. Columbo in a live 1960 episode of The Chevy Mystery Show, seven years before Peter Falk assumed the role. He also appeared in the television series Shane, portraying Rufe Ryker, where he brought a distinctive naturalistic detail to the performance by beginning the season clean-shaven and allowing his beard to grow throughout, never shaving again for the duration of the run. Freed made four guest appearances on Perry Mason, including the role of Ken Woodman in the 1960 episode "The Case of the Treacherous Toupee," Carl Holman in the 1962 episode "The Case of the Poison Pen-Pal," and murder victim Joe Marshall in the 1964 episode "The Case of the Ruinous Road." His television credits between 1947 and 1985 extended across dozens of series, among them Gunsmoke, Bonanza, The Rifleman, Laramie, The Big Valley, The Virginian, The High Chaparral, Mannix, Barnaby Jones, Charlie's Angels, The Untouchables, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Outer Limits, Get Smart, Hogan's Heroes, Combat!, Ben Casey, Dr. Kildare, Ironside, The Green Hornet, The Munsters, Route 66, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Petticoat Junction, The Lucy Show, Steve Canyon, Then Came Bronson, Run for Your Life, and others. He also directed one episode of T.H.E. Cat.

Freed retired from acting in 1986. He died of a heart attack on August 2, 1994, in Sechelt, British Columbia, while on a fishing trip with his son.