Biografia

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.

Between the war movies I've been in and the heavies I've played, I have about 1,000 dead behind me. I've been killed a good many times, but I took a lot of guys with me.

I was very fortunate that I get paid for what I love to do. I know a lot of good actors who simply can't find work. Every time I get a job, I say to myself, 'You've beaten the odds.'

[on his role in A Um Passo da Eternidade (1953)] My first scene on film was where I walk into the office and report Private Prewitt absent to Sergeant Warden, played by Burt Lancaster -- and I was scared to death. Burt was one of the big stars of that era, but still very nice. Fred Zinnemann, the director, was extremely patient and understanding. And somehow I got through it. My panic has always been the time right up to the end of my first scene. Once that first shot is in the can, I'm home free.

A guy who looks like Robert Redford will most often be cast as a hero. A guy like me or Ernie Borgnine plays a lot of heavies. If you're big, they think you're tough. And if you're tough, they think you're dumb.

Hell, acting is acting, whether it's for the movies, TV or the stage,