Rusty Burrell

October 2024 · 4 minute read

'People's court' bailiff, actor

Rusty Burrell, bailiff on TV’s “The People’s Court” and who in his younger years moonlighted as an actor, died Monday April 15 at his Rosemead, Calif., home. He was 76 and had lung cancer.

He spent 25 of his 31 law-enforcement years in the court system and was a real-life bailiff during a number of high-profile trials, including Charles Manson and Patty Hearst. He had often worked with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Joseph Wapner; when Wapner was chosen to preside over TV’s “The People’s Court” Burrell was hired out of retirement from the L.A. Sheriff’s Dept. to be the bailiff on the syndicated show. The duo’s tenure on the series ended in 1993, but they reunited several years later to work on “Judge Wapner’s Animal Court” on cable’s Animal Planet.

A native of Metropolis, Ill., Burrell served in the Navy during World War II and played baseball for the St. Louis Browns’ farm team. He moved to Los Angeles and became a police officer in Pomona, then moved into the sheriff’s department. In his younger years, he moonlighted as an actor, appearing in commercials and bit parts on television shows such as “General Hospital” and movies, including “Take Her, She’s Mine,” starring James Stewart, and “Fate Is the Hunter,” starring Glenn Ford.

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He’s survived by wife Clara, three sons, five grandchildren, one great-grandchild and a sister.

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