Jack Elam
- Acting
- November 13, 1920 · Miami, Gila, Arizona, USA
- October 20, 2003
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 · Self
- Bonanza: Under Attack · Buckshot
- Bonanza: The Return · Buckshot
- Uninvited · Grady
- Shadow Force · Tommy
- Lucky Luke · Axel Ericson
- Suburban Commando · Col. Dustin 'Dusty' McHowell
- Home Improvement · Hick Peterson
- The Giant of Thunder Mountain · Hezekiah Crow
- Big Bad John · Jake Calhoun
- Where the Hell's That Gold?!!? · Boone
- Paradise · Skragg
- Once Upon a Texas Train · Jason Fitch
- I Am Not a Freak · Self
- J.J. Starbuck
- Hawken's Breed · Tackett
- Louis L'Amour's Down the Long Hills · Squires
- Easy Street
- The Aurora Encounter · Charlie
- Detective in the House
- Scrooge's Rock 'N' Roll Christmas · Scrooge
- Cannonball Run II · Doc
- Lost · Mr. Newsom
- Sacred Ground · Lum Witcher
- Jinxed! · Otto
- Skyward Christmas · Clay Haller
- Simon & Simon
- Father Murphy
- Soggy Bottom, U.S.A. · Troscliar Boudreaux
- The Cannonball Run · Doctor
- The Girl, the Gold Watch & Dynamite · Seth Beaumont
- Struck by Lightning · Frank
- The Villain · Avery Simpson
- The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again · Big Mac
- The Sacketts · Ira Bigelow
- $weepstake$
- The Norseman · Death Dreamer
- Hot Lead & Cold Feet · Rattlesnake
- Lacy and the Mississippi Queen · Willie Red Fire
- Huckleberry Finn · King
- Black Beauty · Jonas McBride
- Grayeagle · Trapper Willis
- Eight Is Enough
- Grizzly Adams · Gus
- How the West Was Won · Cully Madigan
- Pony Express Rider · Crazy Charlie
- The Winds of Autumn · J. Pete Hankins
- The New Daughters of Joshua Cabe · Bitterroot
- Hawmps! · Bad Jack Cutter
- Creature from Black Lake · Joe Canton
- A Knife for the Ladies · Jarrod (Sheriff)
- Sidekicks · Boss
- Shootout in a One-Dog Town · Handy
- Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid · Alamosa Bill Kermit
- The Red Pony · Granddad
- Kung Fu · Marcus Taylor
- The Brian Keith Show
- The Daughters of Joshua Cabe · Bitterroot
- The Last Escape of Billy the Kid · Pat Garrett
- Hannie Caulder · Frank Clemens
- The Last Rebel · Matt
- Nichols · Marcus A.F. Baxter
- Cat Ballou · Kid Sheleen
- Support Your Local Gunfighter · Jug May
- Alias Smith and Jones
- The Wild Country · Thompson
- Plimpton! Shoot-Out at Rio Lobo · Self
- Dirty Dingus Magee · John Wesley Hardin
- Rio Lobo · Phillips
- The Cockeyed Cowboys of Calico County · Kittrick
- The Over the Hill Gang · Sheriff Clyde Barnes
- Support Your Local Sheriff! · Jake
- Ride a Northbound Horse · Sheriff
- Once Upon a Time in the West · Frank's Gunman
- Sartana Does Not Forgive · Slim Kovacs
- Lancer
- The Outcasts
- Never a Dull Moment · Ace Williams
- Firecreek · Norman
- The High Chaparral · Macklin