Jack Elam

Jack Elam was an American film and television actor best known for his numerous roles in Western films and, later in his career, comedies. He appeared in about 100 films and 200 television episodes. In one of his first significant roles, Rawhide (1951), he cemented his reputation as a bad guy by shooting a baby to make it dance and killing everybody in the picture except Tyrone Power and Susan Hayward.

Birth, disputed dates, born on Nov. 13, 1916, in Miami, Arizona or November 13, 1920. Elam was born in Miami in Gila County in south-central Arizona, to Millard Elam and Alice Amelia Kirby. His mother died in September 1924. The year 1920 is stated on both his birth and death certificates however his friend in Ashland, Al Hassan, told the press once that he was actually 84 when he died having lied about his age to get work as a youngster. Elam would never confirm his true age when questioned.

Good guys from Frank Sinatra to Henry Fonda gunned him down in classic westerns. His credits included High Noon and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. He had major roles in five television series, including The Dakotas and Struck by Lightning and appeared as a guest in many others, including more than 20 Gunsmoke episodes. Later in his career did Mr. Elam have a chance to display his natural wit and comic timing, in starring roles in comedies like Support Your Local Sheriff (1969) and The Cockeyed Cowboys of Calico County (1970). On Gunsmoke, his roles changed from thugs to more varied characters.

His most distinguishing physical quality was his misaligned eye, the result of an accidental stabbing with a pencil at a Boy Scout meeting that left him blind on the left side. Jack Elam is quoted as saying of his eye, "I don't control it at all. It does whatever the hell it wants."