Alfred Ryder

Who was Alfred Ryder?

Alfred Ryder was an American film, radio and television actor. Ryder may best be remembered for appearing in over one hundred television shows, including the 1959 starring role as a British criminal who could not be killed in Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond episode 'The Devil's Laughter'. In 1966 he was Professor Robert Crater in the first Star Trek episode, "The Man Trap".

Ryder appeared as one of the alien leaders in the TV series The Invaders, as well as the ghost of a World War I German U-boat captain in two episodes of the TV series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. In films he is perhaps best known as the defense attorney who cross-examines John Wayne in True Grit.

He began acting at the age of eight and later went on to study with the likes of Robert Lewis and Lee Strasberg as a young adult. Later still, he would become a life member of The Actors Studio. During the heyday of American network radio comedy, Ryder had two memorable regular roles, as Molly Goldberg's son Sammy in The Goldbergs; and, as Carl Neff in Easy Aces. During World War II he served in the United States Army Air Forces and appeared in the Air Forces' Broadway play and film Winged Victory.