1. William Scott "Jack" Elam was an American film and television actor best known for his numerous roles as villains in Western films and, later in his career, comedies.
18 Facts About Jack Elam
1. 2.
Jack Elam's most distinguishing physical quality was his misaligned eye.
3.
Flossie was employed as well at the time as a public school teacher, while Jack Elam contributed to the family's income by periodically working on nearby farms gleaning cotton.
4.
Zanuck's remarks about Jack Elam's eye proved to be wise career advice, for despite any lifelong disadvantages that his "lazy eye" created for him personally, it proved to be an asset professionally, at least as a performer.
5.
Jack Elam completed his secondary education in Arizona, graduating from Phoenix Union High School in the late 1930s and then moving to California, where he majored in "business studies" at Modesto and Santa Monica junior colleges.
6.
That work required Jack Elam to spend long hours each day reading and examining in detail large quantities of financial records, a routine that put too much strain on his right eye, his "good eye".
7.
Jack Elam told me I had to get out of the business immediately or go blind.
8.
In 1962, Jack Elam appeared as Paul Henry on Lawman in the episode titled "Clootey Hutter".
9.
Jack Elam was the antagonist of the 1960 film The Girl in Lovers Lane, which was the subject of a season five episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
10.
In 1966 Jack Elam was cast in his first comedic role by Paramount Pictures, playing Hank in the Western film The Night of the Grizzly starring Clint Walker.
11.
Jack Elam then appeared in the role of Hick Peterson in a first-season episode of Home Improvement alongside Ernest Borgnine.
12.
Jack Elam portrayed Doctor Nikolas Van Helsing, a "crazed proctologist", in the 1981 action-comedy film The Cannonball Run; and three years later, he reprised the role for the production's sequel, Cannonball Run II.
13.
Jack Elam then played the character Charlie Hankins, a town drunk, in the 1986 "Weird Western" picture The Aurora Encounter.
14.
In 1986, Elam co-starred on the short-lived comedy series Easy Street as Alvin "Bully" Stevenson, the down-on-his-luck uncle of Loni Anderson's character, L K McGuire.
15.
In 1994, Jack Elam was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, OK.
16.
Jack Elam was married twice, first to Jean Louise Hodgert from 1937 until her death from colon cancer on January 24,1961.
17.
Seven months later, in August 1961, Elam married again, then to Margaret M Jennison.
18.
The couple remained together for 42 years, until 2003, when Jack Elam died of congestive heart failure at their home in Ashland, Oregon.