JACK ELAM

'Jack Elam' (November 13, 1920 — October 20, 2003) was an American film actor. He appeared mostly in westerns.
William Scott Elam, "Jack", was born in Miami, Arizona to Millard Elam and Alice Amelia Kerby. Despite wildly spread rumors to the contrary, Alice did not die when Jack was one or two years old. She died in 1924 when he was just shy of four years old. After she died, he was raised by relatives in very unhappy circumstances. By 1930, he was once again living with his father, older sister, Mildred, and their step-mother, Flossie.
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. His face became famous at least in part due to the "lazy" left eye. He was a student of both Miami High School in Gila County and Phoenix Union High School in Maricopa County and graduated from the latter in the late 1930's.
He 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.
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 in Ashland, Oregon of congestive heart failure on October 20 2003, aged 82. [1][2]

Contents

Incomplete Filmography

References

External links

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 rancher

★ 1974 ''The Texas Wheelers'' - TV sitcom

★ 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 ''Uninvited''

★ 1997 '' - TV documentary

★ 2000 ''Travel the Movie Trail '' - TV documentary

★ 2001 ''Dobe and a Compamy of Heroes '' TV documentary

References

★ Mahar, Ted. (Oct. 4, 1998) The Oregonian. ''A Sampling of Elams Movies.'' Page L10.

★ 1920 November 13; Arizona Certificate of Live Birth for William Scott Elam

★ 1920 United States Census, Arizona, Gila County, Miami

★ 1924 September 7; Arizona Original Certificate of Death for Alice Amelia Kerby Elam

★ 1930 United States Census, Arizona, Gila County, Miami

★ 2003 October 20; Oregon Certificate of Death for Jack Elam

External links

★

★ Wadey, Paul. (Oct. 23, 2003). The Independent. ''Obituaries: Jack Elam Archetypal villain in film and TV westerns.'' Page 22.