Jack Elam (November 13, 1920 — October 20, 2003) was an American film actor who appeared mostly in Westerns.

William Scott Elam was born in Miami, Arizona, to Millard Elam and the former Alice Amelia Kerby. Alice died in 1924, when young Jack was not quite four years of age. Afterwards, he was reared by relatives in unhappy circumstances. By 1930, he was once again living with his father, older sister, Mildred, and their stepmother, Flossie.

He grew up picking cotton, and as a Boy Scout, he lost the sight in his left eye after another Scout threw a pencil at him at a troop meeting. 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 and, at one time, manager of the Bel Air Hotel in Los Angeles. In 1949, Elam made his debut in "She Shoulda Said 'No'!", an exploitation film where a chorus girl's smoking marijuana ruins her career and drives her brother to suicide. He then appeared mostly in westerns and gangster films playing villains. In 1961, on an episode of the Twilight Zone titled Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up, Jack played an interesting but slightly crazy character named Avery.

In 1963, he got a rare chance to play the good guy when he played the part of Deputy Marshall J.T.Smith in The Dakotas, a TV western which ran for only nineteen episodes. Elam was given his first comedic role in Support Your Local Sheriff!, after which he found his villainous assignments dwindling and his comic roles increasing. In 1994, he was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum.

Elam classified the stages of a moderately successful actor's life, as defined by the way a film director refers to the actor suggested for a part.

Stage 1: "Who is Jack Elam?"

Stage 2: "Get me Jack Elam."

Stage 3: "I want a Jack Elam type."

Stage 4: "I want a younger Jack Elam."

Stage 5: "Who is Jack Elam?"

Jack Elam died in Ashland, Oregon, of congestive heart failure at the age of eighty-two.http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001181/http://www.tv.com/jack-elam/person/9348/summary.html

Colorful American character actor equally adept at vicious killers or grizzled sidekicks. As a child he worked in the cotton fields. He attended Santa Monica Junior College in California and subsequently became an accountant and, at one time, manager of the Bel Air Hotel. Elam got his first movie job by trading his accounting services for a role. In short time he became one of the most memorable supporting players in Hollywood, thanks not only to his near-demented screen persona but also to an out-of-kilter left eye, sightless from a childhood fight. He appeared with great aplomb in Westerns and gangster films alike, and in later years played to wonderful effect in comedic roles.