Today was the birthday of William Scott Jack Elam (November 13, 1920 - October 20, 2003), an American film actor best known for his numerous roles as villains in Western films and, later in his career, comedies (sometimes spoofing his own villainous image). His most distinguishing physical quality was the iris of his left eye, which was skewed to the outside, making him look unnaturally wide eyed (the opposite of cross eyed). Elam was born in Miami, Arizona, and he grew up picking cotton and lost the sight in his left eye during a boyhood accident when he was unintentionally 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 graduating from there in the late 1930s. Elam 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 also the manager of the Bel Air Hotel in Los Angeles. In 1949, Elam made his debut in “She Shoulda Said No!”, an exploitation film (like Reefer Madness) where a chorus girls marijuana smoking ruins her career and drives her brother to suicide. After that, he appeared mostly in westerns and gangster films playing villains. Elam made multiple guest star appearances in many popular Western television series in the 1950s and 1960s, including Gunsmoke , The Rifleman, Lawman, Bonanza, Cheyenne, Have Gun Will Travel, Zorro, The Lone Ranger and Rawhide. In 1961, Elam played a slightly crazed character in an episode of “The Twilight Zone”. In 1968, he played perhaps his greatest role in Once Upon a Time in the West, where he was a gunslinger sent to kill Charles Bronsons character. In that part, Elam spent a large part of the original scene (unscripted and ad-libbed) humorously playing with a fly he manages to catch in his pistol’s gun barrel. He also played an eccentric sidekick to John Wayne in Howard Hawkss Rio Lobo (1970). In 1969, Elam was given his first comedic role in Support Your Local Sheriff! and later in Support Your Local Gunfighter, both opposite James Garner, after which he found his villainous parts dwindling and his comic roles increasing. He was married twice, first to Jean Elam from 1937 to her death in 1961 and second, Margaret Jennison from 1961 until his death in 2003. Elam had two daughters, Jeri Elam and Jacqueline Elam, and a son, Scott Elam. Elam died in Ashland, Oregon, of congestive heart failure. In 1994, Elam was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum.
Posted on: Wed, 13 Nov 2013 21:46:08 +0000
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