Person Detail
Jack Elam
Catalogued films 116Actor 116
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
Titles and credit roles
Director credits
0/0Actor credits
0/116
Big Guns Talk: The Story of the Western
Bonanza: Under Attack
Bonanza: The Return
Uninvited
Shadow Force
Suburban Commando
Big Bad John
The Giant of Thunder Mountain
Where the Hell's That Gold?!!?
Once Upon a Texas Train
Hawken's Breed
I Am Not a Freak
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
The New Daughters of Joshua Cabe
Creature from Black Lake
Hawmps!
Pony Express Rider
The Winds of Autumn
Sidekicks
Shootout in a One-Dog Town
A Knife for the Ladies
Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid
The Red Pony
The Daughters of Joshua Cabe
The Last Escape of Billy the Kid
Hannie Caulder
Cat Ballou
Support Your Local Gunfighter
The Last Rebel
Plimpton! Shoot-Out at Rio Lobo
Rio Lobo
The Cockeyed Cowboys of Calico County
The Wild Country
Dirty Dingus Magee
The Over the Hill Gang
Support Your Local Sheriff!
Ride a Northbound Horse
Once Upon a Time in the West
Firecreek
Never a Dull Moment
Sartana Does Not Forgive
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
The Far Country
Ride Clear of Diablo
Jubilee Trail
Princess of the Nile
Appointment in Honduras
The Moonlighter
Ride, Vaquero!
Count the Hours!
Gun Belt
Kansas City Confidential
The Ring
My Man and I
Lure of the Wilderness
High Noon
The Battle at Apache Pass
Rancho Notorious
Montana Territory
Finders Keepers
Rawhide
The Bushwhackers
Bird of Paradise
A Ticket to Tomahawk
One Way Street
The Sundowners
American Guerrilla in the Philippines
Key to the City
High Lonesome
Wild Weed