Oliver Drake

Prolific director of B westerns whose career spanned the early days of silent film through the "golden age" of TV. A former cattle rancher, Drake entered silent films as the star of numerous Westerns for Golden West Productions in San Diego, most of which he also wrote and directed. As a writer-director for Republic, Monogram, RKO, Columbia and Universal, he reworked basic sagebrush plots as vehicles for Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Johnny Mack Brown, Tex Ritter, Sunset Carson and Jimmy Wakely. Drake moved to TV in 1951, working on the western series "The Gene Autry Show," "Annie Oakley" and "The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok" as well as "The Adventures of Superman" and "Lassie" before his retirement in 1967.