William Scott "Jack" Elam (November 13, 1920 â€" October 20, 2003),
was an American film and television actor best known for his numerous
roles as villains in Western films and, later in his career, comedies
(sometimes spoofing his villainous image). His most distinguishing
physical quality was his misaligned eye. Before his career in acting,
he took several jobs in finance and served two years in the United
States Navy during World War II.Elam played in 73 movies and made
appearances in 41 television series. Some of his more memorable
performances were in Once Upon a Time in the West, High Noon, Support
Your Local Sheriff!, and on the anthology series The Twilight Zone,
and on the series Gunsmoke.Elam was born in Miami in Gila County in
south central Arizona, to Millard Elam and Alice Amelia Kirby. His
mother died in 1922 when Jack was two years old. By 1930, he was
living with his father, older sister Mildred, and their stepmother,
Flossie Varney Elam. He grew up picking cotton. Elam lost the sight in
his left eye when he was stabbed with a pencil during a boyhood
altercation with a fellow Boy Scout. He was a student at both Miami
High School in Gila County and Phoenix Union High School in Maricopa
County, graduating from there in the late 1930s, also attending Santa
Monica Junior College in California.Elam worked as a bookkeeper at the
Bank of America in Los Angeles and as an auditor for the Standard Oil
Company. In World War II, he served two years in the United States
Navy and subsequently became an independent accountant in Hollywood;
one of his clients was movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn. For a time, he was
the manager of the Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles.
was an American film and television actor best known for his numerous
roles as villains in Western films and, later in his career, comedies
(sometimes spoofing his villainous image). His most distinguishing
physical quality was his misaligned eye. Before his career in acting,
he took several jobs in finance and served two years in the United
States Navy during World War II.Elam played in 73 movies and made
appearances in 41 television series. Some of his more memorable
performances were in Once Upon a Time in the West, High Noon, Support
Your Local Sheriff!, and on the anthology series The Twilight Zone,
and on the series Gunsmoke.Elam was born in Miami in Gila County in
south central Arizona, to Millard Elam and Alice Amelia Kirby. His
mother died in 1922 when Jack was two years old. By 1930, he was
living with his father, older sister Mildred, and their stepmother,
Flossie Varney Elam. He grew up picking cotton. Elam lost the sight in
his left eye when he was stabbed with a pencil during a boyhood
altercation with a fellow Boy Scout. He was a student at both Miami
High School in Gila County and Phoenix Union High School in Maricopa
County, graduating from there in the late 1930s, also attending Santa
Monica Junior College in California.Elam worked as a bookkeeper at the
Bank of America in Los Angeles and as an auditor for the Standard Oil
Company. In World War II, he served two years in the United States
Navy and subsequently became an independent accountant in Hollywood;
one of his clients was movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn. For a time, he was
the manager of the Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles.
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