Biography
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 o...
Known For
Complete Filmography

Sam Peckinpah's West: Legacy of a Hollywood Renegade
2004
as (archive footage)
An account of the life and work of American film director Sam Peckinpah (1925-84), a tortured artist whose genius and inner demons changed the Western...

Big Guns Talk: The Story of the Western
1997
as Self
Interviews and film clips re-create the glorious history of the American western.

Bonanza: Under Attack
1995
as Buckshot
After a rogue band of Pinkerton detectives led by ruthless Charley Siringo bushwhacks reformed outlaw Frank James, he seeks sanctuary on the Ponderosa...

Bonanza: The Return
1993
as Buckshot
A man with a grudge against the late Little Joe seeks revenge on the Cartwrights and attempts to take over the Ponderosa.

Uninvited
1993
as Grady
A fortune in gold lures 8 misfits to an Indian burial ground, resulting in murder.

Shadow Force
1992
as Tommy
Policemen by Day - Assassins at Night. A story all too familiar yet amazing to see. Follow the daily lives of corrupt policemen as they make a fortune...

Suburban Commando
1991
as Col. Dustin 'Dusty' McHowell
Shep Ramsey is an interstellar hero, righting wrongs, etc. His ship is damaged after a fight with an interstellar nasty and he must hide out on Earth ...

The Giant of Thunder Mountain
1990
as Hezekiah Crow
A mountain man is falsely accused of the murder of his parents.

Big Bad John
1990
as Jake Calhoun
Jimmy Dean's popular 1950 song is translated into a feature length movie about a young couple who elopes to escape the girl's evil stepfather.

Where the Hell's That Gold?!!?
1988
as Boone
A pair of thieves are pursued by the U.S. Army, the Mexican federales and Apaches in this made-for-TV Western.

Once Upon a Texas Train
1988
as Jason Fitch
Captain Hayes of the mighty law enforcement squad named the Texas Rangers reached the pinnacle of his career when he captured the notorious John Henry...

I Am Not a Freak
1987
as Self
This film is a fascinating look at some people afflicted with congenital deformities of an extreme nature. Their ability to live with their aberration...

Hawken's Breed
1987
as Tackett
Hawken is a rugged drifter and loner who meets and comes to rescue a young Shawnee woman, named Spirit in 1840s Tennessee, whom he leaves after saving...

Louis L'Amour's Down the Long Hills
1986
as Squires
Two young survivors of a wagon-train massacre battle horse thieves as they take a prize stallion through Utah.

The Aurora Encounter
1986
as Charlie
In 1897, residents of a small Texas town are visited by a benevolent extraterrestrial being whose presence divides the community.

Scrooge's Rock 'N' Roll Christmas
1984
as Scrooge
Scrooge is visited by a girl with a snow globe—which shows him people like Mike Love and Three Dog Night singing Christmas carols—to teach the crotche...

Cannonball Run II
1984
as Doc
When a wealthy sheikh puts up $1 million in prize money for a cross-country car race, there is one person crazy enough to hit the road hard with wheel...

Lost
1983
as Mr. Newsom
A little girl gets lost in the wilds of Utah.

Sacred Ground
1983
as Lum Witcher
SACRED GROUND tells the fact-based story of a mountain man and his Indian wife who happen upon a partially built cabin and finish it for their own hom...

Jinxed!
1982
as Otto
Harold, a professional gambler, and his girlfriend Bonita, a lounge singer, follow Willie, a young blackjack dealer, around the western U.S. Harold ha...

Skyward Christmas
1981
as Clay Haller
In this sequel to "Skyward" and pilot to a prospective series, Julie attempts a secret flight to bring her grandfather home for a Christmas reunion.

Soggy Bottom, U.S.A.
1981
as Troscliar Boudreaux
In a small Southern town, the local sheriff tries to keep everything peaceful and under control.

The Cannonball Run
1981
as Doctor
A cross-country road race is based on an actual event, the Cannonball Baker Sea to Shining Sea Memorial Trophy Dash, organized by Brock Yates to prote...

The Girl, the Gold Watch & Dynamite
1981
as Seth Beaumont
In this sequel to "The Girl, the Gold Watch & Everything," down-on-his-luck Kirby Winter inherits a floundering business, and the magical gold watch w...

The Villain
1979
as Avery Simpson
Handsome Stranger has agreed to escort Charming Jones to collect her inheritance from her father. But Avery Simpson wants the money and hires notoriou...

The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again
1979
as Big Mac
Amos and Theodore, the two bumbling outlaw wannabes from The Apple Dumpling Gang, are back and trying to make it on their own. This time, the crazy du...

The Norseman
1978
as Death Dreamer
An 11th-century Viking prince sails to America to find his father, who on a previous voyage had been captured by Indians.

Hot Lead & Cold Feet
1978
as Rattlesnake
Twin brothers -- one rough and tough, the other a city-bred milquetoast -- compete for their father's fortune.

Lacy and the Mississippi Queen
1978
as Willie Red Fire
This lighthearted Western was an unsuccessful series pilot in which two sisters -- a gun-toting tomboy and a beauty with an engaging smile -- team up ...

Grayeagle
1977
as Trapper Willis
A young Cheyenne warrior, who goes by the name Grayeagle, kidnaps the daughter of a grizzled frontier man John Colter who goes on an epic search for h...

Pony Express Rider
1976
as Crazy Charlie
A young Texas Man who saw his father get killed by a group of bandits, decides years later to go to work for the Pony Express. But he is not just work...

The Winds of Autumn
1976
as J. Pete Hankins
In 1884, an eleven-year-old Quaker boy sets out on his own to seek revenge against a gang of outlaws who senselessly murdered his family.

The New Daughters of Joshua Cabe
1976
as Bitterroot
Three young women who posed as the daughters of an elderly homesteader find out that he has been falsely accused of murder, convicted, and sentenced t...

Hawmps!
1976
as Bad Jack Cutter
In old-west Texas, the cavalry's horses can't take the heat. So the military sends them camels instead, and assigns one man to convince the unit that ...

Creature from Black Lake
1976
as Joe Canton
Some fishermen are attacked in the Louisiana swamps. When the word gets out of a mysterious Bigfoot-type creature, two researchers come to a small tow...

Huckleberry Finn
1975
as King
Huckleberry Finn, a rambuctious boy adventurer chafing under the bonds of civilization, escapes his humdrum world and his selfish, plotting father by ...

A Knife for the Ladies
1974
as Jarrod (Sheriff)
A mutilating knife-killer haunts the small Southwest-desert town of Mescal. Though most victims have been prostitutes, the first was none other than T...

Sidekicks
1974
as Boss
Travelling through the West right after the Civil War, two con men hatch a scheme to try to collect the fifteen thousand dollar bounty offered for the...

Shootout in a One-Dog Town
1974
as Handy
A small-town banker is forced to protect his town against a vicious gang of bank robbers determined to get the $200,000 stored in his bank.

Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid
1973
as Alamosa Bill Kermit
Pat Garrett is hired as a lawman on behalf of a group of wealthy New Mexico cattle barons to bring down his old friend Billy the Kid.

The Red Pony
1973
as Granddad
A young farmboy who can't seem to communicate with his father develops an attachment to a young red pony.

The Daughters of Joshua Cabe
1972
as Bitterroot
Due to a home-steading law, a fur trapper schemes to keep his land by hiring a hooker, a pickpocket and a thief to pose as his family.

The Last Escape of Billy the Kid
1972
as Pat Garrett
Formerly lost western starring Jack Elam

Hannie Caulder
1971
as Frank Clemens
Hannie enlists the aid of bounty hunter Tom Price to teach her how to be a gunfighter so she can hunt down the 3 men who killed her husband and raped ...

The Last Rebel
1971
as Matt
Set in 1865 in southwest Missouri, at the close of the Civil War the film follows the adventures of two Confederate men and a black man who they rescu...

Cat Ballou
1971
as Kid Sheleen
A pretty ranch owner hires a drunken gunslinger and his two companions to protect her ranch from outlaws and build a school for local children.

Support Your Local Gunfighter
1971
as Jug May
A con artist arrives in a mining town controlled by two competing companies. Both companies think he's a famous gunfighter and try to hire him to driv...

The Wild Country
1970
as Thompson
Uprooted from their comfortable home in Pennsylvania, James and Kate Tanner, along with their sons, Virgil and Andy, journey to the wild country of 18...

Plimpton! Shoot-Out at Rio Lobo
1970
as Self
George Plimpton got a job playing one of the bad guys in the Howard Hawks-directed John Wayne Western "Rio Lobo." In this special we see him talking t...

Dirty Dingus Magee
1970
as John Wesley Hardin
Ass-breaker Dingus Magee is looking for a gold train when he comes upon old acquaintance Hoke Birdsill on stage to San Francisco, and robs him of his ...

Rio Lobo
1970
as Phillips
After the Civil War, a former Union colonel searches for the two traitors whose perfidy led to the loss of a close friend.

The Cockeyed Cowboys of Calico County
1970
as Kittrick
A simple-minded blacksmith named Charley, well loved by the townsfolk, saves for a year to send off for a mail-order bride.

The Over the Hill Gang
1969
as Sheriff Clyde Barnes
A retired Texas Ranger and three aged pals help to clean up a town run by a crooked mayor, a drunken judge and a trigger-happy sheriff.

Support Your Local Sheriff!
1969
as Jake
In the old west, a man becomes a Sheriff just for the pay, figuring he can decamp if things get tough.

Ride a Northbound Horse
1969
as Sheriff
Fifteen-year-old Cav Rand purchases a racehorse and trains him into a winner, but a con artist is plotting to get the stallion away from the innocent ...

Once Upon a Time in the West
1968
as Frank's Gunman
As the railroad builders advance unstoppably through the Arizona desert on their way to the sea, Jill arrives in the small town of Flagstone with the ...

Sartana Does Not Forgive
1968
as Slim Kovacs
Jorge Martin is relentlessly stalking a gang of outlaws led by the ruthless Slim who raped and murdered his bride.

Never a Dull Moment
1968
as Ace Williams
When practicing for a role, actor Jack is mistaken for the killer Ace. He doesn't realize this until it's too late and is carried off to gangster boss...

Firecreek
1968
as Norman
A peace-loving, part-time sheriff in the small town of Firecreek must take a stand when a gang of vicious outlaws takes over his town.

The Last Challenge
1967
as Ernest Scarnes
An upstart outlaw baits a legendary gunslinger, now a marshal in love with a saloon keeper.

The Way West
1967
as Preacher Weatherby
In the mid-19th century, Senator William J. Tadlock leads a group of settlers overland in a quest to start a new settlement in the Western US. Tadlock...

The Night of the Grizzly
1966
as Hank
Marshall "Big Jim" Cole turns in his badge and heads to Wyoming with his family in order to settle on some land left him by a relative. He faces oppos...

The Rare Breed
1966
as Deke Simons
When her husband dies en route to America, Martha Price and her daughter Hilary are left to carry out his dream: the introduction of Hereford cattle i...

4 for Texas
1963
as Dobie
In the 1870s, two rival businessmen, Zack Thomas and Joe Jarrett, on a stagecoach heading to Galveston, Texas, must pull together to protect $100,000 ...

Pocketful of Miracles
1961
as Cheesecake
A New York gangster and his girlfriend attempt to turn street beggar Apple Annie into a society lady when the peddler learns her daughter is marrying ...

The Comancheros
1961
as Horseface (Comanchero)
Texas Ranger Jake Cutter arrests gambler Paul Regret, but soon finds himself teamed with his prisoner in an undercover effort to defeat a band of rene...

The Last Sunset
1961
as Ed Hobbs
At a Mexican ranch, fugitive O'Malley and pursuing Sheriff Stribling agree to help rancher Breckenridge drive his herd into Texas where Stribling coul...

The Girl in Lovers Lane
1960
as Jesse
Two drifters contend with love and murder in a small town.

The Slowest Gun in the West
1960
as Ike Dalton
The town of Primrose, Arizona is beset by outlaws, so the towns people hire Fletcher Bissell III (A.K.A. The Silver Dollar Kid) as their new sheriff. ...

Edge of Eternity
1959
as Bill Ward
Helped by socialite Janice Kendon and barkeeper Scott O'Brien, Arizona deputy sheriff Les Martin works to solve three brutal murders in and around the...

The Gun Runners
1958
as Arnold
Remake of "To Have and Have Not" based on Hemingway short story. Plot reset to early days of Cuban revolution. A charter boat skipper gets entangled i...

Baby Face Nelson
1957
as Fatso Nagel
Famed Depression-era gangster “Baby Face Nelson” (Mickey Rooney) robs and kills while accompanied by his beautiful moll (Carolyn Jones).

Dragoon Wells Massacre
1957
as Tioga
A cavalry officer, the sole survivor of an Indian attack, and a wagon load of prisoners travel through hostile Indian country.

Night Passage
1957
as Shotgun
Grant MacLaine, a former railroad troubleshooter, lost his job after letting his outlaw brother, the Utica Kid, escape. After spending five years wand...

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
1957
as Tom McLowery
Lawman Wyatt Earp and outlaw Doc Holliday form an unlikely alliance which culminates in their participation in the legendary Gunfight at the O.K. Corr...

Lure of the Swamp
1957
as Henry Bliss
Simon Lute ekes out a modest living chartering his skiff to tourists and guiding them through the labyrinthine bayou.

Thunder Over Arizona
1956
as Slats Callahan
Ervin Plummer-played by the estimable George Macready, who like his good friend Vincent Price was a man of culture and erudition who specialised in ba...

Pardners
1956
as Pete
Rich momma's boy Wade Kingsley Jr. an Eastern dude, tries to follow in his murdered father's footsteps by returning to the West to partner up with Sli...

Jubal
1956
as McCoy
Jubal Troop is a cowboy who is found in a weakened condition, without a horse. He is given shelter at Shep Horgan's large ranch, where he quickly make...

The Silent Partner
1955
as Shanks
When a great film director accepts an Academy Award, he reflects on a comedian he worked with in the early film days, owing his success to him, not re...

Artists and Models
1955
as Ivan
A struggling painter begins taking inspiration from the dreams of his friend and roommate, a comic book fan who narrates an adventure story while he s...

Kismet
1955
as Hasan-Ben
A silver-tongued poet and self-proclaimed "King of the Beggars" searches old Baghdad for a rich bachelor to marry his dreamy daughter, Marsinah. Along...

The Man from Laramie
1955
as Chris Boldt
Will Lockhart arrives in Coronado, an isolated town in New Mexico, in search of someone who sells rifles to the Apache tribe, finding himself unwillin...

Wichita
1955
as Al
Former buffalo hunter and entrepreneur Wyatt Earp arrives in the lawless cattle town of Wichita Kansas. His skill as a gun-fighter makes him a perfect...

Moonfleet
1955
as Damen
Set in the eighteenth century, Moonfleet is about John Mohune, a young orphan who is sent to the Dorset village of Moonfleet to stay with an old frien...

Kiss Me Deadly
1955
as Charlie Max
One evening, Hammer gives a ride to Christina, an attractive hitchhiker on a lonely country road, who has escaped from the nearby lunatic asylum. Thug...

Man Without a Star
1955
as Knife Murderer (uncredited)
A wandering cowboy gets caught up in a range war.

Tarzan's Hidden Jungle
1955
as Burger
Hunters trespass into Sukulu country, where animals are sacred, posing as photographers.

Vera Cruz
1954
as Tex
After the American Civil War, mercenaries travel to Mexico to fight in their revolution for money. The former soldier and gentleman Benjamin Trane mee...

Cattle Queen of Montana
1954
as Yost
Sierra Nevada Jones must fight a villainous rancher to regain the land that is rightfully hers.

Princess of the Nile
1954
as Basra
Shalimar, an Egyptian princess, striving to rid her country of its Bedouin conquerors, forms an alliance with Prince Haidi, son of the Caliph of Bagda...

Jubilee Trail
1954
as Whitey
A wild-west trader and his New York wife head out for the California by wagon train. The trader is killed enroute, and his wife finds herself with chi...

The Far Country
1954
as Frank Newberry
During the Klondike Gold Rush, a misanthropic cattle driver and his talkative elderly partner run afoul of the law in Alaska and are forced to work fo...

Ride Clear of Diablo
1954
as Tim Lowerie
A young railroad surveyor returns to his hometown to find the man who murdered his father and brother.

Appointment in Honduras
1953
as Castro
On a tramp steamer off Central America are Mr. and Mrs. Sheppard, five prisoners en route to a Nicaraguan prison, and Corbett, an American carrying mo...

The Moonlighter
1953
as Slim
Wes Anderson (Fred MacMurray) is caught cattle rustling and promptly jailed. The public is outraged, but, since Wes always worked at night, they don't...

Gun Belt
1953
as Rusty Kolloway
Gunfighter Billy Ringo decides to hang up his guns, buy a ranch and marry Arlene Reach. His brother Matt, father of Chip, the nephew Ringo is trying t...

Ride, Vaquero!
1953
as Barton
Ranchers in New Mexico have to face Indians and bandits.

Count the Hours!
1953
as Max Verne
A lawyer defends a migrant worker in a sensational murder trial.

Kansas City Confidential
1952
as Pete Harris
An ex-convict sets out to uncover who framed him for an armored car robbery.

The Ring
1952
as Harry Jackson
A young Mexican/American learns about life both inside and out of the ring when he takes up boxing.

My Man and I
1952
as Celestino Garcia
In California, a Mexican-American laborer is falsely accused of shooting the racist farmer he was working for after the farmer stiffed him with a bad ...

Lure of the Wilderness
1952
as Dave Longden
A young girl and her father, who is unjustly accused of murder, seek refuge in a Georgia swamp until they are befriended by a trapper who penetrates t...

High Noon
1952
as Charlie - Drunk in Jail (uncredited)
Will Kane, the sheriff of a small town in New Mexico, learns a notorious outlaw he put in jail has been freed, and will be arriving on the noon train....

Montana Territory
1952
as Gimp
John Malvin , prospecting the Montana territory during the gold rush, sees bandits kill a miner and his son. He eludes the outlaws by hiding near a st...

The Battle at Apache Pass
1952
as Mescal Jack
Major Jim Colton is a sympathetic leader who has a working relationship with Apache leader Cochise. Colton is undermined by corrupt and politically am...

Rancho Notorious
1952
as Mort Geary
A man in search of revenge infiltrates a ranch, hidden in an inhospitable region, where its owner, Altar Keane, gives shelter to outlaws fleeing from ...

Finders Keepers
1952
as Eddie
A curious toddler creates trouble when he finds bank robbers' loot

The Bushwhackers
1951
as Cree
Confederate veteran Jeff Waring arrives in Independence, Missouri shortly after the Civil War, intending never again to use a gun. He finds that ranch...

Rawhide
1951
as Tevis
At a desolate relay station in the west, a stagecoach attendant and a stranded woman traveller are held captive by a band of escaped convicts.

Bird of Paradise
1951
as The Trader
Andre Laurence accompanies his college roommate, Tenga, back to Tenga's Polynesian island home. There, Andre becomes attracted to the native life and ...

American Guerrilla in the Philippines
1950
as The Speaker
American soldiers stranded in the Philippines after the Japanese invasion form guerrilla bands to fight back. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive i...

High Lonesome
1950
as Smiling Man
When a sudden spurt of murders occurs in the Big Bend country, suspicion immediately falls on a young drifter who just moved to the area.

A Ticket to Tomahawk
1950
as Fargo
A cowboy is hired by a stagecoach boss to stop the railroad reaching his territory and putting him out of business. He uses everything from Indians to...

One Way Street
1950
as Arnie (uncredited)
After stealing a gangster's money and his girlfriend, a doctor heads for a small village in Mexico to hide out.

The Sundowners
1950
as Earl Boyce
Brother is pitted against brother in this tale of fueding ranchers in the old west.

Key to the City
1950
as Councilman (uncredited)
At a mayors convention in San Francisco, ex-longshoreman Steve Fisk meets Clarissa Standish from New England. Fisk is mayor of "Puget City" and is pro...

Wild Weed
1949
as Raymond - Henchman
A chorus girl's career is ruined and her brother is driven to suicide when she starts smoking marijuana.