
Jack Elam
Acting
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
1997Big Guns Talk: The Story of the Western
Self
1995Bonanza: Under Attack
Buckshot
1993Uninvited
Grady
1993Bonanza: The Return
Buckshot
1992Shadow Force
Tommy
1991Suburban Commando
Col. Dustin 'Dusty' McHowell
1990The Giant of Thunder Mountain
Hezekiah Crow
1990Big Bad John
Jake Calhoun
1988Where the Hell's That Gold?!!?
Boone
1988Once Upon a Texas Train
Jason Fitch
1987Hawken's Breed
Tackett
1987I Am Not a Freak
Self
1986Louis L'Amour's Down the Long Hills
Squires
1986The Aurora Encounter
Charlie
1984Cannonball Run II
Doc
1984Scrooge's Rock 'N' Roll Christmas
Scrooge
1983Sacred Ground
Lum Witcher
1983Lost
Mr. Newsom
1982Jinxed!
Otto
1981The Cannonball Run
Doctor
1981Soggy Bottom, U.S.A.
Troscliar Boudreaux
1981Skyward Christmas
Clay Haller
1981The Girl, the Gold Watch & Dynamite
Seth Beaumont
1979The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again
Big Mac