Word of the Day
Elam (EE-luhm)
Common clue: Oater actor Jack
A wild-eyed, colorful, croaky-voiced character actor, Jack Elam was equally adept at vicious killers or grizzled sidekicks. He had an eerie, immobile eye, which was caused by a fight with another kid at the age of 12. It happened during a Boy Scout meeting when another boy took a pencil, threw it, and it jabbed his eyeball.
Most say Jack Elam was born in Miami, Arizona in 1917, but there is good reason to believe he was actually born in 1919 and lied about his age in his early years to get work.
He attended Santa Monica Junior College in California and began a career as an accountant. Staring at small figures on ledger sheets for hours on end strained his good eye and doctors told him he risked losing his sight if he continued his lucrative accounting business. He got his first movie role by trading his accounting services for it.
His acting career falls into three distinct phases: In the 1950’s and 1960’s he played the “heavy” in a number of films including “High Noon” and “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral”. In the late ‘60’s he began doing mostly comedic westerns such as “Once Upon a Time In the West” and “Support Your Local Sheriff”. By the late ‘70’s Elam settled into loveable old coot characterizations.
He was proud to be inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1994.
He died in 2003, two months after the death of fellow co-star Charles Bronson
|
|