Born in Detroit, Bryant was a character actor who appeared in films such as King Dinosaur (1955), Escape from San Quentin (1957), Experiment in Terror (1962) with Glenn Ford, How to Murder Your Wife and The Great Race with Jack Lemmon, What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?

He also played several roles in the classic western movies Heaven with a Gun (1969), Chisum (1970), Macho Callahan (1970), Wild Rovers (1971), The Deadly Trackers (1973).

Most of his career was made on television, including Hallmark Hall of Fame, Frontier, Casey Jones, Tales of the Texas Rangers, The Gray Ghost, Maverick, The Rebel, Have Gun – Will Travel, The Rifleman(S5 E7 "The Assailants"), Laramie, The Virginian, Rawhide, Lancer, Miami Undercover, The Blue Angels, Ripcord, Combat!, Empire, Mission: Impossible, Mannix, Gunsmoke (S2E25 - “Bureaucrat”, S4E37 - “The Constable” & S12E12 - “Quaker Girl”), Bonanza, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Wild Wild West, Death Valley Days, Alias Smith and Jones, Banacek, McCloud, Columbo, Petrocelli, Cannon, The Rockford Files, Barnaby Jones, Code R, The Fall Guy, Shazam!, Hardcastle and McCormick and many others.

He played Colonel Crook in sixteen episodes of the TV series Hondo, was on Emergency!

(1972–1978) as different engine company captains, Branded (1965) as General Ulysses S. Grant, and in Lancer (1968) as Sheriff Gabe.