Jack Elam
Born: 1920-11-13
• Miami, Gila, Arizona, USA
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.
Filmography
Big Guns Talk: The Story of the Western
Bonanza: Under Attack
Bonanza: The Return
Uninvited
Shadow Force
Suburban Commando
The Giant of Thunder Mountain
Big Bad John
Where the Hell's That Gold?!!?
Once Upon a Texas Train
I Am Not a Freak
Hawken's Breed
Louis L'Amour's Down the Long Hills
The Aurora Encounter
Scrooge's Rock 'N' Roll Christmas
Cannonball Run II
Lost
Sacred Ground
Jinxed!
Skyward Christmas
Soggy Bottom, U.S.A.
The Cannonball Run
The Girl, the Gold Watch & Dynamite
The Villain
The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again
The Norseman
Hot Lead & Cold Feet
Lacy and the Mississippi Queen
Huckleberry Finn
Grayeagle
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
The Daughters of Joshua Cabe
The Last Escape of Billy the Kid
Hannie Caulder
The Last Rebel
Cat Ballou
Support Your Local Gunfighter
The Wild Country
Plimpton! Shoot-Out at Rio Lobo
Dirty Dingus Magee
Rio Lobo
The Cockeyed Cowboys of Calico County
The Over the Hill Gang
Support Your Local Sheriff!
Ride a Northbound Horse
Once Upon a Time in the West
Sartana Does Not Forgive
Never a Dull Moment
Firecreek
The Last Challenge
The Way West
The Night of the Grizzly
The Rare Breed
4 for Texas
Pocketful of Miracles
The Comancheros
The Last Sunset
The Girl in Lovers Lane
The Slowest Gun in the West
Edge of Eternity
The Gun Runners
Baby Face Nelson
Dragoon Wells Massacre
Night Passage
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
Lure of the Swamp
Thunder Over Arizona
Pardners
Jubal
Artists and Models
Kismet
The Man from Laramie
Wichita
Moonfleet
Kiss Me Deadly
Man Without a Star
Tarzan's Hidden Jungle
Vera Cruz
Cattle Queen of Montana
Princess of the Nile
Jubilee Trail
The Far Country
Ride Clear of Diablo
Appointment in Honduras
The Moonlighter
Gun Belt
Ride, Vaquero!
Count the Hours!
Kansas City Confidential
The Ring
My Man and I