Jack Elam

[Subdeacon Joe]

Movie and Entertainment Sphere

Suggested for you  ·   · 

 

 

What is an example of a person practically falling into a movie career and becoming famous(with no prior experience)?

There are lots of great answers to this question, so it feels a bit unnecessary to add one more. However, I’m going to do it because I love this story.

There was this guy who was very nerdy in the 1930s. He loved bookkeeping and was quite happy working in offices. In fact, he was a terrific accountant. World War II came along and he enlisted, serving out his time NOT in the “actor’s division” in Hollywood but as an ordinary soldier. Then, at the end of the war, he mustered out of the US Navy along with everyone else and returned to his accounting practice. However, this time he opened up his own office and worked for well-heeled people in Los Angeles.

And there the story might have ended, but one day the fellow got some bad news from his doctor. A childhood accident had deprived him of the sight in one eye, and the doctor told him he was straining his remaining eye too much. If he continued working long hours as an accountant, he’d go blind.

Well, the poor fellow had no interest in doing anything else and no aptitude, either. Certainly, he would never be able to find another career that paid as well as his accounting gig.

So, he moped around for a while, at loose ends. He talked to one of his clients about his problem, and the man offered him a job. It wasn’t much of a job, and he had no training in the field, but he figured, well, why not.

The client was Jack Warner. The audiences loved the accountant and he went on to a spectacular career as a character actor playing heavies and ornery western parts. From what I have heard, he was a hell of a nice guy, too.

Oh, one last thing. Late in his career, after he had been in films for decades, someone asked Jack Elam if he’d rather still be an accountant. “In a heartbeat,” he replied.

Read more>>> http://tinyurl.com/3stam498

 

 

 

 

[Rye Miles #13621]

Great story!!! Thanks for that! Interesting that he loved accounting so much!

[Abilene Slim SASS 81783]

Hmmm. How did he serve in the Navy if he was blind in one eye from a childhood accident?

[Chantry]

He was hysterical in Cannonball Run

 

 

[Rye Miles #13621]

20 minutes ago, Abilene Slim SASS 81783 said:

Hmmm. How did he serve in the Navy if he was blind in one eye from a childhood accident?

Hmmm…..Good point!

[Subdeacon Joe]

26 minutes ago, Abilene Slim SASS 81783 said:

Hmmm. How did he serve in the Navy if he was blind in one eye from a childhood accident?

 

I've seen conflicting accounts, almost evenly split, of "despite being blind in one eye he was able to enlist" and "being exempt because he was blind in one eye, but still wanting to serve, he worked as a civilian for the Navy."

[Moonshine 20515]

In WW II there were many exceptions.  They needed men, war fighters.  There are a number of things a one-eyed guy could do, I'm sure.

 

MS

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Sometimes need outweighs the rules. They took me in 65 regardless of my feet. I had several sergeants take a closer look when marching but nobody really said it was wrong.

[Injun Ryder, SASS #36201L]

FIL, 82nd Airborne, lost an eye at Anzio. He continued to serve and was back in action in Market Garden.

[Will Kane]

IIRC, the bad eye was the result of another kid jabbing him in that eye with a pencil during a Boy Scout meeting.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

At least it wasn’t a bb-gun.

 

[sassnetguy50]

4 hours ago, Abilene Slim SASS 81783 said:

Hmmm. How did he serve in the Navy if he was blind in one eye from a childhood accident?

His eye was injured at age 11 but wasn't blind until the lens was removed years later.  The eye still tracked with his working eye until his 30s. 

 

I've read that he enlisted, served 2 years in the navy, was discharged, and read that he was hired by the navy as a civilian worker in Culver City.

[Warden Callaway]

Jack at his best.

 

 

[Rye Miles #13621]

42 minutes ago, Warden Callaway said:

Jack at his best.

 

 

 

Love that movie!! Tyrone Power and Susan Hayword

[Dantankerous]

Plenty of great Jack Elam roles. He was a treasure. Still is. 

[Dusty Wyatt]

Always one of my favorites.

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

Elam once described the career arc of a character actor:

 

It goes like this, the director says “Who’s Jack Elam? Then it's "Get me Jack Elam." Then, "Get me a Jack Elam type". Then, "Get me a young Jack Elam". Finally, "Who’s Jack Elam?"

 

[Cypress Sun]

40 minutes ago, Dantankerous said:

Plenty of great Jack Elam roles. He was a treasure. Still is. 

 

You look just like him...almost like a twin!

[DeaconKC]

He stole every scene in Rio Lobo and Support Your Local Sheriff!

[watab kid]

i enjoyed his character in everything i saw him in , the guy you loved to hate , 

 

as an aside , i almost lost one eye in a similar accident at a boy scout meeting - about a half inch and instead of a slight scar id have been blind in my right eye