From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia James Burke September 24 1886 May 23 1968 was an American film and television actor born in New York City He made his stage debut in New York around 1912 and went to Hollywood in 1933 He made over 200 film appearances during his career which ranged from 1932 to 1964 he was more often than not cast as a cop usually a nonetoobright one most notably as Sgt Velie in Columbias Ellery Queen mysteries in the early 1940s He appeared in The Maltese Falcon At the Circus Lone Star and many others One of his best roles was as Charles Ruggles rowdy rancher pal in Ruggles of Red Gap In the early 1950s Burke appeared with Tom Conway in the ABC detective drama series then called Inspector Mark Saber Homicide Detective later renamed reformatted and switched to NBC under the title Saber of London From 19601961 Burke appeared in the role of Zeke Bonner in seven episodes of the ABC western television series Stagecoach West starring Wayne Rogers Robert Bray and Richard Eyer Burke suffered from a heart condition which took his life at the age of eightyone
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