American actor (1918-2003). Born in
Miami, Arizona, Elam worked in the
cotton fields when he was a boy. He got into a
fight with a boy at a
Boy Scout meeting when he was 12 years old. The other boy threw a
pencil, which struck Elam in the left
eye,
blinding him and rendering his eye
off-kilter and
immobile. His
strange, staring eye eventually became Elam's ticket to
fame (Well, as much fame as you can get as a
Hollywood character actor).
He attended
Santa Monica Junior College and got jobs as the manager of the
Bel Air Hotel and as an
accountant. After
World War II, Elam was hired as a
bookkeeper at
Samuel Goldwyn Studios, before being promoted to Office
Controller for movie star
William Boyd at
Hopalong Cassidy Productions. But working on figures for long hours put a strain on his good eye, and his
doctor warned him that continuing his work in accounting could cost him his
sight. Soon after, he learned that a friend in the
studio was having difficulty getting financing for three
Western scripts. Elam made him a deal--all three
scripts got
financed, and Elam got cast as a
bad guy in all three
movies.
Elam's portrayals of
crazed villains were very
popular, thanks at least in part to his
scary eye, his 6' 2" frame, and his deep,
gravelly voice, and he soon found himself in greater demand as an actor. He played, generally, three kinds of characters:
terrifying thugs, killers, and general heavies;
funny thugs, killers, and general heavies; and
loveable old
mountain men. And while playing all these different kinds of roles, he also became known on sets as a world-class
gambler.
Some of Elam's movies included: "
Trailin' West" (his first movie), "
She Shoulda Said No", "
The Sundowners", "
High Lonesome", "
Rawhide", "
The Bushwhackers", "
Rancho Notorious", "
The Battle at Apache Pass", "
Montana Territory", "
High Noon", "
Kansas City Confidential", "
Ride, Vaquero!", "
Ride Clear of Diablo", "
Princess of the Nile", "
The Far Country", "
Vera Cruz", "
Cattle Queen of Montana", "
Kiss Me Deadly", "
Wichita", "
The Man from Laramie", "
Kismet", "
Tarzan's Hidden Jungle", "
Thunder Over Arizona", "
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral", "
Baby Face Nelson", "
The Gun Runners", "
The Comancheros", "
The Slowest Gun in the West", "
4 for Texas", "
Once Upon a Time in the West", "
Support Your Local Sheriff!", "
The Over-the-Hill Gang", "
Sonora", "
Cockeyed Cowboys of Calico County", "
Rio Lobo", "
The Wild Country", "
Support Your Local Gunfighter", "
Hannie Caulder", "
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid", "
A Knife for the Ladies", "
Huckleberry Finn", "
The Ransom of Red Chief", "
Hawmps!", "
The Winds of Autumn", "
How the West Was Won", "
Grayeagle", "
The Norseman", "
Hot Lead and Cold Feet", "
The Sacketts", "
The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again", "
The Villain", a TV series called "
Struck by Lightning", where he played
Frankenstein's monster, "
Soggy Bottom, USA", "
Cannonball Run", "
Sawyer and Finn", "
Cannonball Run II", "
The Aurora Encounter", "
Once Upon a Texas Train", "
Big Bad John", "
Suburban Commando", "
The Giant of Thunder Mountain", "
Bonanza: The Return", and "
Bonanza: Under Attack" (his last film).
He was inducted into the
Hall of Great Western Performers of the
National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1994. He died of an unspecified illness in
Ashland, Oregon, on
October 20, 2003.
Research from the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com)