Jack Elam
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William Scott "Jack" Elam (November 13, 1918 – October 20, 2003) was an American film actor best known for his numerous roles as villains in Western films.
Elam was born in Miami, Arizona, to Millard Elam and Alice Amelia Kerby. Kerby died in 1924, when young Jack was not quite five years old. By 1930, he was once again living with his father, older sister Mildred, and their stepmother, Flossie (Varney).
He grew up picking cotton. He lost the sight in his left eye during a boyhood accident. He was a student of both Miami High School in Gila County and Phoenix Union High School in Maricopa County and graduated from the latter in the late 1930s.
He attended Santa Monica Junior College in California and subsequently became an accountant in Hollywood; one of his clients was movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn. At one time, he was the manager of the Bel Air Hotel in Los Angeles.
Acting career
In 1949, Elam made his debut in She Shoulda Said No!, an exploitation film wherein a chorus girl's marijuana smoking ruins her career and drives her brother to suicide. He appeared mostly in westerns and gangster films playing villains. In 1961, Elam played a slightly crazed character in an episode of The Twilight Zone, "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?".
In 1963, he...