Bruce Kirby

Who is Bruce Kirby?

Bruce Kirby is an American character actor.

Though he has been a working actor since the 1950s, Kirby is most familiar to Columbo fans as the gullible Sergeant Kramer. He also appeared in the 1971 movie called How to Frame a Figg with Don Knotts and the 1972 comedy Another Nice Mess with Rich Little. A notable recent appearance was as Pop Ryan, father of Officer John Ryan in the 2004 film Crash.

In 1981-1982, he appeared as San Francisco police officer Schmidt in the 9-episode CBS crime drama Shannon starring Kevin Dobson in the title role.

Kirby's television roles ranged from Goodyear Television Playhouse in the 1950s to I Dream of Jeannie, The Nurses, The Defenders, Car 54, Where Are You?, and The Patty Duke Show in the 1960s to Bonanza, Ironside, Barney Miller, Hogan's Heroes, The Rockford Files, The Marcus-Nelson Murders, Kojak, and Alice in the 1970s to Remington Steele, Night Court, Matlock, Hill Street Blues, Lou Grant and Punky Brewster in the 1980s to The Golden Girls, L.A. Law, In the Heat of the Night, Murphy Brown, Murder, She Wrote, Chicago Hope, The Sopranos, The Agency and The West Wing in the 1990s. He also had several roles in the long-running series Columbo, including By Dawn's Early Light.