Fred Burns (Actor)

Lanky, Montana-born Fred Burns, a former bronco-buster for the Buffalo Bill and Miller 101 Wild West shows, played Western leads opposite Lillian Gish at Biograph in the very early 1910s and later rode in The Birth of a Nation (1915). Like brother Bob Burns, the distinguished-looking, gray-haired Fred eventually drifted into supporting and bit roles, almost always portraying a sheriff or deputy. He seems to have retired after Gene Autry's Barbed Wire (1952), in which, unbilled as usual, he played a rancher. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide