Jack Elam
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Jack Elam | |
 Elam in Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) |
|
| Birth name | Jack Elam |
| Born | 13 Nov 1918 Miami, Arizona, USA |
| Died | 20 Oct 2003 aged 84 |
Jack Elam (November 13, 1918 — October 20, 2003) was an American film actor. He appeared mostly in westerns.
Born in Miami, Arizona, he was raised by relatives in very unhappy circumstances. He grew up picking cotton, and as a Boy Scout he lost the sight in his left eye after another Scout threw a pencil at him at a troop meeting.[citation needed] His face became famous at least in part due to the "lazy" left eye.
He later attended Santa Monica Junior College in California and subsequently became an accountant in Hollywood and, at one time, manager of the Bel Air Hotel in Los Angeles. In 1949, Elam made his debut in "She Shoulda Said 'No'!", an exploitation film where a chorus girl's smoking marijuana ruins her career and drives her brother to suicide. He then appeared mostly in westerns and gangster films playing "heavies".
In 1963 he got a rare chance to play the good guy when he played the part of Deputy Marshall J.D.Smith in "The Dakotas", a TV western which was to run for 19 episodes. Elam was given his first comedic role in Support Your Local Sheriff!, after which he found his villainous assignments dwindling and his comic jobs increasing. He was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1994.
Elam produced probably the best ever description of the stages of a moderately successful actor's life. According to him the stages are defined by the way a film director refers to the actor suggested for a part.[citation needed]
Stage 1: "Who is Jack Elam?"
Stage 2: "Get me Jack Elam."
Stage 3: " I want a Jack Elam type."
Stage 4: "I want a younger Jack Elam."
Stage 5: "Who is Jack Elam?"
Jack Elam died of congestive heart failure on October 20, 2003, aged 84.[1][2]
[edit] Incomplete Filmography
- 1949 She Shoulda Said No a k a The Devils Weed
- 1950 A Ticket to Tomahawk
- 1950 An American Guerrilla in the Philippines
- 1950 High Lonesome
- 1950 The Gunfighter
- 1951 Bird of Paradise
- 1952 High Noon with Gary Cooper, as drunken Charlie in jail
- 1952 Kansas City Confidential
- 1952 Rancho Notorious
- 1953 Ride Vaquero! with Robert Taylor, Ava Gardner and Howard Keel
- 1954 Vera Cruz with Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster, as Tex
- 1954 Cattle Queen of Montana with Barbara Stanwyck and Ronald Reagan, as Yost
- 1955 Kiss Me Deadly, as Charlie Max
- 1955 Man Without a Star
- 1955 Wichita with Joel McCrea and Vera Miles, as Al Mann
- 1955 The Man From Laramie with James Stewart, Arthur Kennedy, as Chris Boldt the town liar
- 1957 Gunfight at the OK Corral
- 1957 Night Passage
- 1959 The Girl In Lovers Lane
- 1961 A Pocketful of Miracles
- 1961 The Comancheros
- 1961 The Last Sunset
- 1963 4 for Texas
- 1963-1964 Temple Houston- TV
- 1966 The Rare Breed
- 1967 The Way West
- 1968 Firecreek
- 1968 Once Upon a Time in the West
- 1968 Support Your Local Sheriff! with James Garner, as unwillingly Deputy Jake
- 1970 Support Your Local Gunfighter! with James Garner, as Jug May
- 1970 Dirty Dingus Magee as John Wesley Hardin.
- 1970 Cockeyed Cowboys of Calico County with Dan Blocker and Nanette Fabray
- 1970 Rio Lobo as a threatened rancher
- 1976 Hawmps!
- 1978 Grayeagle
- 1978 Hot Lead and Cold Feet, as Rattlesnake
- 1981 Cannonball Run, as Doctor Nikolas Van Helsing
- 1982 Jinxed!
- 1983 Sacred Ground
- 1984 Cannonball Run II
- 1986 Aurora Encounter, as Charlie
- 1991 Suburban Commando
- 1992 Home Improvement as Hick Peterson (1 episode)
- 1993 Shadow Force
- 1993 The Uninvited
- 1997 Big Guns Talk: The Story of the Western - TV documentary
- 2000 Travel the Movie Trail - TV documentary
- 2001 Dobe and a Compamy of Heroes TV documentary
[edit] References
- Mahar, Ted. (Oct. 4, 1998) The Oregonian. A Sampling of Elams Movies. Page L10.
[edit] External links
- Jack Elam at the Internet Movie Database
- Wadey, Paul. (Oct. 23, 2003). The Independent. Obituaries: Jack Elam Archetypal villain in film and TV westerns. Page 22.
