Quiz

Served as a Master Sergeant in the US Army Signal Corps during World War II.

He was always very friendly to everyone and was very gracious in signing every autograph request.

During the 1980s and 1990s, Akins appeared in many television commercials as the spokesmen for AAMCO transmission, with the slogan "Double A, [honk, honk], M, C, O".

First performed at the age of 5 in a church play in which he played a bird.

Akins majored in speech and theater at Northwestern University. Later, he trained at the Barter Theater in Abingdon, Virginia in the late 1940s and toured in such shows as "The Hasty Heart" and "The Comedy of Errors". He made his Broadway debut in a small, uncredited role in "The Rose Tattoo" in 1951.

Although not known as a singer, Akins co-hosted the 15th Academy of Country Music Awards. He also sang in an episode of Movin' On (1974).

The son of Ernest, a former stonecutter who later became a policeman, and Maude Akins, Claude had an older sister named Hazel. The family moved from Nelson, Georgia to Bedford, Indiana when Claude was six months old. Bedford, Indiana, hosts the Claude Akins Memorial Golf Scramble each September. The tournament is a 6-person scramble format. Proceeds from the scramble fund two scholarships for graduating seniors of the local high school, Bedford-North Lawrence.

Claude Akins lost his bid to be elected President of the Screen Actors Guild in 1975. The winner was Kathy Nolan (The Real McCoys).

Before acting he was a limestone salesman.

Invested well in later years in a shopping center in the San Fernando Valley and in a 69-house development in Vista, California.

Played chess with his friend, William Windom.

A lifelong golfer, he played in a lot of pro-am golf tournaments for various charities right up until his death, including the Vantage Championship Pro-Am at Tanglewood Park in Clemmons, North Carolina, in the early 1990s. He was a close friend and golfing partner of another golf fanatic and veteran movie heavy, Robert J. Wilke.

Appeared with Andy Griffith in "Onionhead: and "Matlock: The Thoroughbred".

Appeared with his Movin' On (1972) costar, Frank Converse in Killer a bordo (1977).

Appeared with Sidney Poitier in two films, "Porgy and Bess" and "The Defiant Ones".

Appeared with Da qui all'eternità (1953) co-star George Reeves in Peril by Sea (1956) in 1956.

In May 1993 Claude Akins lost half his stomach to cancer surgery.

He has an entry in Jean Tulard's "Dictionnaire du cinéma/Les acteurs" published in Paris in 2007 by Robert Laffont/Bouquins, pg. 17 (ISBN: 978-2-221-10895-6).