Jack Elam
Acting
- Born:
- 1920-11-13
- Died:
- 2003-10-20
- Place of birth:
- Miami, Gila, Arizona, USA
Biography
Colorful American character actor equally adept at vicious killers or grizzled sidekicks. As a child he worked in the cotton fields. He attended Santa Monica Junior College in California and subsequently became an accountant and, at one time, manager of the Bel Air Hotel. Elam got his first movie job by trading his accounting services for a role. In short time he became one of the most memorable supporting players in Hollywood, thanks not only to his near-demented screen persona but also to an out-of-kilter left eye, sightless from a childhood fight. He appeared with great aplomb in Westerns and gangster films alike, and in later years played to wonderful effect in comedic roles.
Known For
Filmography
Big Guns Talk: The Story of the Western
Bonanza: Under Attack
Bonanza: The Return
Uninvited
Shadow Force
Lucky Luke
Suburban Commando
Home Improvement
The Giant of Thunder Mountain
Big Bad John
Where the Hell's That Gold?!!?
Paradise
Once Upon a Texas Train
I Am Not a Freak
J.J. Starbuck
Hawken's Breed
Louis L'Amour's Down the Long Hills
Easy Street
The Aurora Encounter
Detective in the House
Scrooge's Rock 'N' Roll Christmas
Cannonball Run II
Lost
Sacred Ground
Jinxed!
Skyward Christmas
Simon & Simon
Father Murphy
Soggy Bottom, U.S.A.
The Cannonball Run
The Girl, the Gold Watch & Dynamite
Struck by Lightning
The Villain
The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again
The Sacketts
$weepstake$
The Norseman
Hot Lead & Cold Feet
Lacy and the Mississippi Queen
Huckleberry Finn
Black Beauty
Grayeagle
Eight Is Enough
Grizzly Adams
How the West Was Won
Pony Express Rider
The Winds of Autumn
The New Daughters of Joshua Cabe
Hawmps!
Creature from Black Lake
A Knife for the Ladies
Sidekicks
Shootout in a One-Dog Town
Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid
The Red Pony
Kung Fu
The Brian Keith Show
The Daughters of Joshua Cabe
The Last Escape of Billy the Kid
Hannie Caulder