Men Of Character Character Actors
Luke Askew
Per Quinlan's Character Stars:
Tall, rangy, brown haired, mean looking American actor with worried brown eyes. He came to Hollywood after a varied early career - television announcer, manager of a waste paper plant. off Broadway acting work - and played mostly un kempt villains often in westerns. Less often seen in films since the late 1970's.
He was born Francis Luke Askew at Macon, GA in 1932.
Askew attended the University of Georgia, Mercer University and the Walter F. Jay School Of Law.
During his college years he served with the Strategic Air Command in the intelligence group.
He developed an interest in acting towards the end of his high school years.
After college he became a radio deejay and announcer prior to beginning his career as an actor in off Broadway productions.
Moving to Los Angeles in 1966 Askew made his film debut debut was in the film Hurry Sundown in 1967. However he was first noticed for his acting ability in the film Cool Hand Luke. The following year he worked with John Wayne in The Green Berets.
Some of the film roles of Luke Askew were:
Hurry Sundown (1967) as Dolph Higginson
The Happening (1967) as Second Motorcycle Officer
Cool Hand Luke (1967) as Boss Paul
Will Penny (1967) as Foxy
The Devil's Brigade (1968) as Pvt. Hubert Hixon
The Green Berets (1968) as Sgt. Provo
Easy Rider (1969) as Stranger On The Highway
Flareup (1969) as Alan Moris
Night Of The Serpent (1969) as Luke
Angel Unchained (1970) as Jonathan Tremaine
The Glass House (1972-TV) as Bibleback
The Culpepper Cattle Co. (1972) as Luke
The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid ( 1972) as Jim Younger
The Magnificent Seven Ride! ( 1972) as mark Skinner
Pat Garret & Billy The Kid (1973) as Eno
Slipstream (1973) as Mike Mallard
Manhunter (1974-TV) as Max Chabriol
Night Games (1974-TV) as D. D. Franklin
This Is The West That Was (1974-TV) as Oscar Wellman
Attack On Terror: The FBI vs The Ku Klux Klan ( 1975-TV) as Aaron Cord
A Matter Of Wife .....And Death (1975-TV) as Snell
Posse (1975) as Krag
Walking Tall Part 2 (1975) as Pinky Dobson
Mackintosh And T J (1975) as Cal
The Quest (1976-TV) as Crane
The Invasion Of Johnson County (1976-TV) as Deputy Sheriff Brooks
Rolling Thunder (1977) as Automatic Slim
Wanda Nevada (1979) as Ruby Muldoon
The Beast Within (1982) as Dexter Ward
The Warrior And The Sorceress (1984) as Zeg The Tyrant
Kung Fu: The Movie (1986-TV) as Sheriff Mills
Legend Of The White Horse (1987) as Frank Brown
Bulletproof (1986) as Gen. Gallo
Back To Back (1989) as Wade Duro
No Retreat, No Surrender 3: Blood Brothers (1990) as Atteron
Dune Warriors (1990) as William
Father & Son: Dangerous Relations ( 1993) as The warden
The Friends Of Harry (1995) as harry
Frank & Jesse (1995) as Lone Rider
Savage (1996) as Capt. Rohmer
Traveller (1997) as Boss jack Costello
The Newton Boys (1998) as Chief Shoemaker
Vendetta (1999-TV) as William Parkerson
South Of Heaven, West Of Hell (2000) as Leland Henryu
The Greatest Game Ever Played (2005) as Alec Campbell
He had a rare leading role in the spaghetti western Night Of The Serpent.
Always made a very believable villain.
Mr. Askew was active on television appearing in such programs as Bonanza, Bearcats, Longstreet, Mission Impossible, Cannon, S W A T, Police Story, The Streets Of San Francisco, The Rockford Files, The Six Million Dollar Man, How The West was Won, Hart To Hart, Quincy ME, B J & The Bear, Fantasy Island, The Greatest American Hero, Knight Rider, Matt Houston, T J Hooker, The Fall Guy, Airwolf, L A Law, MacGyver, Simon & Simon, Murder She Wrote, Walker Texas Ranger, Everwood, The 4400, Cold Case and Big Love among others.
At one time he sang blues music at the Gaslight, the same club as Bob Dylan did in the 1960's. He did songs of Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and Jimmy Reed. Dylan said he sounded like Bobby Blue Bland.
Askew is probably best known for his role as the stranger on the highway in the film Easy Rider, working with Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda. This film also help make him a cult figure in the modern day cinema.
He took part in Easy Rider: Shaking The Cage (1999) which was a documentary about the making of the film Easy Rider as well as the 2003 documentary Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How The Sex, Drugs and Rock 'N Roll Generation saved Hollywood.
Mr. Askew was married and had a son whose name was Christopher. His son was a well regarded painter and tattoo artist.
He moved to Lake Oswego, Oregon where he passed away in March, 2012 from lung cancer.
An excellent bad guy, I enjoyed this actor in the films Easy Rider, Cool Hand Luke, Will Penny, The Devil's Brigade, The Green Berets, Walking Tall Part 2, Night Of The Serpent and The Magnificent Seven Ride.
Louie The Movie Buff