Jack Elam

Jack Elam
Elam in Kansas City Confidential (1952)
Born	William Scott Elam November 13, 1920(1920-11-13) Miami, Arizona, United States
Died	October 20, 2003(2003-10-20) (aged 82) Ashland, Oregon, United States
Years active	1944–95
Spouse	Margaret Jennison (1961-2003) (his death) Jean Elam (1937-61) (her death)

William Scott "Jack" Elam (November 13, 1920 – October 20, 2003) was an American film actor best known for his numerous roles as villains in Western films and, later in his career, comedies (sometimes spoofing his villainous image).

Early life

Elam was born in Miami, Arizona, to Millard Elam and Alice Amelia Kirby. Kirby died in 1924, when young Jack was not quite four years old. By 1930, he was once again living with his father, older sister Mildred, and their stepmother, Flossie (Varney).

He grew up picking cotton. He lost the sight in his left eye during a boyhood accident when he was stabbed with a pencil at a Boy Scout meeting. 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 1930s.

He attended Santa Monica Junior College in California and subsequently became an accountant in Hollywood; one of his clients was movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn. At one time, he was the manager of the Bel Air Hotel in Los Angeles.

Acting career

In 1949, Elam made his debut in She Shoulda Said No!, an exploitation film where a chorus girl's marijuana smoking ruins her career and drives her brother to suicide. He appeared mostly in westerns and gangster films playing villains. In 1961, Elam played a slightly crazed character in an episode of The Twilight Zone, "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?".

In 1963, he got a rare chance to play the good guy when he played the part of Deputy Marshal J.D. Smith in The Dakotas, a TV western that ran for only nineteen episodes. He played an eccentric sidekick to John Wayne in Howard Hawks's Rio Lobo (1970). Elam was given his first comedic role in Support Your Local Sheriff!, after which he found his villainous assignments dwindling and his comic roles increasing.

In 1985 Elam played as Charlie in The Aurora Encounter. During this film Elam made a lifelong relationship with a 11 year old boy named Mickey Hays, who suffered from progeria. As shown in the documentary I Am Not A Freak viewers see how close Elam and Hays really were. Elam said, "You know I've met a lot of people, but I've never met anybody that got next to me like Mickey."

In 1994, Elam was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum.

Elam classified the stages of a moderately successful actor's life, as defined by the way a film director refers to the actor suggested for a part. (He said this on a George Plimpton ABC documentary about the making of Rio Lobo.) This humorous quote has also been attributed to other actors, especially Ricardo Montalban and Mary Astor:

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?"

Personal life and death

He was married twice, and had two daughters, Jeri Elam and Jacqueline Elam and a son, Scott Elam. Elam died in Ashland, Oregon, of congestive heart failure.

Partial filmography

• "She Shoulda Said 'No'!", also known as Wild Weed and The Devil's Weed (1949)
• A Ticket to Tomahawk (1950)
• American Guerrilla in the Philippines (1950)
• High Lonesome (1950)
• Bird of Paradise (1951)
• Rawhide (1951)
• High Noon with Gary Cooper, as drunken Charlie in jail (uncredited) (1952)
• The Battle at Apache Pass with Jeff Chandler, as Mescal Jack (1952)
• Kansas City Confidential (1952)
• Rancho Notorious (1952)
• Ride Vaquero! with Robert Taylor, Ava Gardner and Howard Keel (1953)
• Count the Hours also known as Every Minute Counts with Teresa Wright and Macdonald Carey, 1953
• Ride Clear of Diablo with Audie Murphy(1954)
• The Far Country with James Stewart (1954)
• Vera Cruz with Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster, as Tex (1954)
• Cattle Queen of Montana with Barbara Stanwyck and Ronald Reagan, as Yost (1954)
• 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 (1955)
• Kismet (1955)
• Jubal (1956) with Glenn Ford, Ernest Borgnine
• Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957)
• Night Passage (1957)
• The Gun Runners (1958)
• The Girl in Lovers Lane (1959)
• A Pocketful of Miracles (1961)
• The Comancheros (1961)
• The Last Sunset (1961)
• 4 for Texas (1963)
• The Night of the Grizzly (1966)
• The Rare Breed (1966)
• The Way West (1967)
• The Last Challenge(1967)
• Firecreek (1968)
• Never a Dull Moment (1968)
• Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
• Support Your Local Sheriff! with James Garner, as Deputy Jake (1969)
• The Over-the-Hill Gang (1969)
• Support Your Local Gunfighter with James Garner, as Jug May (1971)
• Dirty Dingus Magee as John Wesley Hardin (1970)
• Cockeyed Cowboys of Calico County with Dan Blocker and Nanette Fabray (1970)
• Rio Lobo as Philips, a rancher (1970)
• Hannie Caulder (1971)
• Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973)
• The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again (1975)
• Hawmps! (1976)
• Creature From Black Lake (1976)
• The Winds of Autumn (1976)
• Grayeagle (1977)
• Hot Lead and Cold Feet, as Rattlesnake (1978)
• The Villain (1979)
• Louis L'Amour's The Sacketts (1979)
• The Cannonball Run, as Doctor Nikolas van Helsing (1981)
• Jinxed! (1982)
• Sacred Ground (1983)
• Cannonball Run II (1984)
• The Aurora Encounter, as Charlie (1985)
• Once Upon a Texas Train with Willie Nelson (1988)
• Where The Hell's That Gold? with Willie Nelson (1988)
• The Giant of Thunder Mountain (1991)
• Suburban Commando as Col. Dustin 'Dusty' McHowell (1991)
• Shadow Force (1993)
• Uninvited (1993)
• Bonanza: The Return (1993) (TV)
• Bonanza: Under Attack (1995) (TV)

TV series

• Stories of the Century as Black Jack Ketchum (1954)
• Frontier as Father Matias in "Ferdinand Meyer's Army" and as Ness Fowler in "Cattle Drive to Casper" (1955)
• Sugarfoot (1957–1961)
• The Restless Gun (2 episodes, 1957–1958)
• The Rifleman — 5 appearances, one as Sim Groner (series ran 1958-1963 date of episode needed Knight Errant,season 4 EP-7)
• Tombstone Territory (1959) as Wally Jobe in the episode "Day of the Reckoning"
• "((Have Gun Will Travel))" (1959) as Joe Gage in the episode "The Man Who Lost"
• Mackenzie's Raiders (1959) as Trooper Colin Grimes in the episode "Desertion"
• Bonanza episodes "The Spitfire" (1961) and "Honest John" (1970).
• The Twilight Zone (TV series) episode "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?" (1961)
• Target: The Corruptors! (1962) guest star
• The Dakotas (1963) recurring role
• Temple Houston (1963–1964)
• Daniel Boone (TV series) episode 18 "The Sound of Fear" (Feb 1965)
• F Troop episode "Dirge for the Scourge" (1965) as gunfighter Sam Urp
• The Legend of Jesse James (1965–1966) guest star
• Gunsmoke as gunfighter Jim Barrett (1966) guest star
• Gunsmoke as a U.S. marshal Lucas Murdoch(1971)
• The Brian Keith Show (1974) guest star
• The Texas Wheelers (1974–1975), situation comedy with costar Gary Busey
• Struck by Lightning (1979). Elam starred as Frankenstein's monster. In an interview, Elam recalled that when he was approached to take the part, he was told he would not need makeup; his appearance was already perfect for the part. This statement convinced him to accept the role.^{[citation needed]} The program only lasted about three weeks before it was canceled, either due to low ratings or because its use of dark humor made it inappropriate for American audiences at the time.
• Easy Street (1986)
• Home Improvement (1992) Guest star
• Cheyenne (19??) as Toothy Thompson ? episodes

Further reading

• McCormack, Tiffany. Jack Elam in the Oregon Encyclopedia
• 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

• Jack Elam at the Internet Movie Database
• Jack Elam at Find a Grave
• Literature on Jack Elam