Hugh Sanders

Hugh Sanders' strong personality and authoritarian demeanor often found the Midwestern character actor portraying judges, sheriffs, and strong-willed men over the course of his nearly 20-year career. Sanders began acting in the '50s with small roles in films like "Only the Valiant," about a ragtag group of Army rejects who must defend an important mountain pass from attack. In 1953, Sanders appeared as a hotheaded teen in "The Wild One," which starred Marlon Brando in a breakout role as the troubled and aimless leader of an outlaw motorcycle gang. In the Oscar-nominated biopic "The Pride of St. Louis," Sanders portrayed a concerned friend of depressed Hall of Fame baseball pitcher Jerome "Dizzy" Dean. By the '60s, Sanders had transitioned to television work; he appeared as a local deputy on several episodes of the popular western series "Rawhide" and played a hard working doctor on multiple episodes of the adventure comedy "Bonanza." In one of his last roles before his death in 1966, Sanders appeared as a rural villager on "The Fugitive," which followed the wrongfully accused Dr. Richard Kimble (David Janssen) and his desperate attempts to clear his name.