Stars & Players · Biography
Jack Elam
1920–2003 · Actor
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.
Notable Noir Roles
An ex-convict sets out to uncover who framed him for an armored car robbery.
A young Mexican/American learns about life both inside and out of the ring when he takes up boxing.
On a tramp steamer off Central America are Mr. and Mrs. Sheppard, five prisoners en route to a Nicaraguan prison, and Corbett, an American carrying money for a Honduran counter-revolution. Denied perm…
Simon Lute ekes out a modest living chartering his skiff to tourists and guiding them through the labyrinthine bayou.
