Ankrum made 22 appearances on CBS's Perry Mason as one of several judges who regularly presided over the murder trials of Mason's clients from the show's first season in 1957 until his death in 1964.
In the 1958-59 season Ankrum appeared 12 times in Richard Carlson's syndicated western series Mackenzie's Raiders, along with other cast "Raiders" Brett King, Jack Ging and Louis Jean Heydt.