Dern Alert: 22 times Bruce Dern guest starred on classic TV shows

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According to IMDb, actor Bruce Dern has 188 film and television credits. That number is astounding, but it's inaccurate because it doesn't consider the number of times Dern reappeared on classic shows as different characters. Sometimes, he'd even show up as different characters within the same season. Before the advent of the internet, it wasn't nearly as easy to recall where you'd last seen an actor's face. Plus, with so many Westerns looking very similar, slipping a little extra Dern in without anyone noticing was easy. And let's be honest, we're not complaining.

Just how many times was Dern on TV in the '60s and '70s? This list doesn't even scratch the surface. These twenty-two appearances aren't even the tip of the ice-Dern.

Here, for your ease and enjoyment, is a nowhere-near-comprehensive list of 22 times Bruce Dern showed up in classic television series. How many of these roles do you remember?

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1. The Alfred Hitchcock Hour - Season 2 Episode 15

 

As Roy Bullock in "Night Caller"

2. The Alfred Hitchcock Hour - Season 3 Episode 6

 

As Jesse in "The Lonely Place"

3. Rawhide - Season 8 Episode 4

 

As Ed Rankin in "Walk into Terror"

4. The Big Valley - Season 1 Episode 20

 

As Follett in "Under a Dark Star"

5. The Big Valley - Season 1 Episode 26

 

As Dixon in "By Force and Violence"

6. The Big Valley - Season 2 Episode 1

 

As Clovis in "The Lost Treasure"

7. The Big Valley - Season 3 Episode 12

 

As Gabe Skeels in "Four Days to Furnace Hill"

8. The Big Valley - Season 4 Episode 11

 

As John Weaver in "The Prize"

9. Gunsmoke - Season 11 Episode 4

 

As Doyle Phleger in this eleventh season episode

10. Gunsmoke - Season 11 Episode 11

 

As Judd Print in "South Wind"

11. Gunsmoke - Season 12 Episode 3

 

As Lou Stone in "The Jailer"

12. Gunsmoke - Season 14 Episode 21

 

As Guerin in "The Long Night"

13. Bonanza - Season 9 Episode 15

 

As Cully Maco in "The Trackers"

14. Bonanza Season 11 Episode 23

 

As Bayliss in "The Gold Mine"

15. Wagon Train - Season 7 Episode 9

 

As Seth Bancroft in "The Eli Bancroft Story"

16. Wagon Train - Season 8 Episode 8

 

As Jud Fisher in "Those Who Stay Behind"

17. Wagon Train - Season 8 Episode 24

 

As Wilkins in this eighth season episode

18. The Fugitive - Season 1 Episode 3

 

As Deputy Martin in "The Other Side of the Mountain"

19. The Fugitive - Season 1 Episode 17

 

As Charley in "Come Watch Me Die"

20. The Fugitive - Season 2 Episode 21

 

As Cody in "Corner of Hell"

21. The Fugitive - Season 3 Episode 13

 

As Hank in "The Good Guys and the Bad Guys"

22. The Fugitive - Season 4 Episode 12

 

As Hutch in "The Devil's Disciples"

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23 Comments

Snickers 18 months ago
Bruce was a busy boy on T.V. But I really liked him in the movies "Silent Running" and " The Cowboys" with John Wayne.
Mannixishot 19 months ago
Bruce Dern is one hell of an actor. Lonely Place (AHH) is such an excellent written and performed episode. He should've been nominated for awards for that performance alone. It's episodes like that that shows how the older shows are just better written imo. Today's writing would've pushed the envelope showing a bunch of graphic scenes that's honestly not needed. Good writing stands on its own.
PierreKhoury 19 months ago
The best of the best! My favorite bad-guy!
DavyG 19 months ago
Bruce Dern and Warren Oates are the 2 best bad guys from that TV era, The only time i remember Dern a goodguy was the Big Valley when he is dressed as a priest
Kaydee 19 months ago
Bruce Dern was the absolute best character actor of 60's television. Especially the TV westerns of the 60's, he was so good at portraying an asshole he should've won dozens of Emmy's for his spectacular work on television at the time. There were times when I totally despised the man! Ha! and he's one of the few classic actors of that era still among the living and still acting. I'm sure his daughter actress Laura Dern is very proud of her dad. God Bless.
MikeStidham 19 months ago
Uh, "Stoney Burke"? He had a recurring role on that show as one of Jack Lord's sidekicks.
Wiseguy70005 MikeStidham 19 months ago
MeTV only reports on shows they broadcast.
KaptainKraspo 19 months ago
Bruce Dern played an alien in one of the final episodes of Land of The Giants, plus a thug in the famous Outer Limits episode 'The Zanti Misfits'. Quite a lot more than just 22!
Wiseguy70005 KaptainKraspo 19 months ago
MeTV doesn't show Outer Limits.
drcrumpler 19 months ago
He was in an episode of Boris Karloff: Thriller. He was turned into a hog. Loved to hate him in The Cowboys. I mean, the dude killed John Wayne, and t'weren't no easy win, either.
retired2019 19 months ago
I always thought he was kinda cute in a scruffy kinda way.
Bapa1 19 months ago
Always did a good job. he was on so many TV shows. He was on Big Valley so often he probably had his own parking space.
Robertp 19 months ago
A really great bad guy! Well, you know what I mean, right? He just brings out something inside you and makes you hate him. Remember, The Cowboys?
PortelaJ Robertp 19 months ago
I wholeheartedly agree. I was a young tyke when I first saw the Cowboys and his character killed John Wayne. I hated him for the longest time. I was a much later I realize it was just the actor and his role. boy did he nail it.
RobertK 19 months ago
He sure fit the role when a quirky, somewhat un-settled character was needed in an episode or film. His roles always seemed a bit scary.
Mblack 19 months ago
I always liked him in Silent Running, an SF film not a sub film.
bdettlingmetv Mblack 19 months ago
He definitely countered his frequent 'bad guy' persona with that film. Saw it as it came out when I was 11. The little robots toiling away at the end, keeping their 'charges' healthy and thriving, but with no humans to appreciate their efforts just made me cry. Need to pull that one up again soon.
AnnieM bdettlingmetv 19 months ago
Huey, Dewey, and Louie. That was a great movie, yes. It was interesting seeing Bruce Dern play a 'good guy' for once. For me, I think he creeped me out the most in his two Hitchcock Hour episodes.
kmarsh12 AnnieM 19 months ago
Sort of a good guy. He did murder his shipmates.
RichardPniewski AnnieM 19 months ago
Hitchcock also directed him in two features - he was the sailor Tippi Hedren had killed when she was a little girl killed in "Marnie" and was the star of "Family Plot," Hitchcock's last (and underrated) film.
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