A genuine Westerner, Fred Burns worked as a bronco buster in Buffalo Bill's Wild West show at the turn of the century. Burns became a movie cowboy in 1916, first as a leading man in such serials as Ruth of the Rockies, then in innumerable character parts. He made his talkie debut as Wilkins in the 1929 musical extravaganza Rio Rita. Fred Burns came full circle, so to speak, with his participation in the 1940 B-Western Young Buffalo Bill (1940).