There is an old saying that goes something like this: you have to have seen it to have to believe it. What this means, is that watching things modifies how your belief system works. For example, if you grow up in an abusive household, chances are you are going to be abusive as well. I am very aware that this is a generalization, but as I grow older, I find that generalizations have a way of increasingly being truer than they were just a few years before. I like to apply my generalizations to several parts of my life as well, viewing actions, stories, and even others through a fine mesh that I like to think strains things in a slewed manner towards my sweeping opinions.
You will, if you live long enough, probably do this too. No matter how you try to play it, no matter how you allow your youth to deny it, when you become a fat old fart, you are going to start thinking that the younger people in your life are crazy…and not just in a “normal crazy” manner, oh no. you are going to see these young punks come up with all these ideas, ideas that they love, and ideas that you think are totally moronic. It’s just the normal progression of life. Back when the Sex Pistols were new, parents reviled them, saying they were damaging to children and to values the world over…now they are accepted and gasp, dare I say it, given honors for their music.
It is good that I mention a media figure and how the conception of it (or them) has changed over time. I want to talk about media here. I watch a lot of movies. How many? In the last year, I have downloaded 574 individual full length films and by a rough estimate (I put the ones I have watched into a separate folder), I have watched 540 of them. This translates to about one and a half movies per day, every day, for the last year. since I am so high on my self-made ideas concerning generalization, it is only natural that I apply it to this large portion of my life.
This series of articles are about character actors. Character actors are actors who are described as bit players, secondary parts, and individuals not integral to the part, while also helping the plot move along. Type-cast cookie cutter parts are made for character actors. But sometimes, despite the writer’s shackles and the director’s prison-like ideas, a talent will rise above the constraints that the term “character actor” bestows upon the poor individuals, rising like some modern day Phileas Fogg clinging to his balloon. And like Fogg, when they do this, they are catapulted into brilliant careers that, literally speaking, are comparable to brilliant careers.
Now I want to shift your thinking a bit here. At first we were talking about character actors, which is fine, but I want to narrow this chat down a bit, to focus our mind’s laser beam a bit more acutely so that we can excise out just a different chunk, a similar chunk yet darker, of the whole character actor “body.” You may know of several character actors, guys like Alec Baldwin or Donald Pleasance, guys who, despite their grand talents, just didn’t have that UMPH, just didn’t have that one thing to hurl them over the precipice of “Leading Man” and then shoot them into true Hollywood stardom. But these two examples, these guys are what the industry calls “straight men.” They play (normally) the guy (or gal, as the case permits) off to the side who, despite doing a great job, is only there to expedite the plot or to serve as cinematographical cannon fodder. The beam I am using wants to cut further than that and wants to cut out the really sinister guys. The guys who give your girlfriends the creeps as you drive them home from the theater. The guys who might have been good looking if they didn’t have “rapists eyes” or that long scar running down their right cheek. I want to talk about Sleazeballs.
These guys may or may not be the “almost leading man,” and they may or may not be central to the plot. But somehow, their looks, talent, or a combination of both literally drips like a poison off of the screen and into you, sickening yet causing you to wonder; just why is this guy so despicable? Why does this guy make my skin crawl like I have just seen a spider in the shower stall? Why is this guy so seducing, yet so ugly at the same time?
So with much ado, and a lot of typing I have found myself here, introducing my first sleazeball character actor, and that actor is: Jack Elam.
Jack Elam was a character actor sleazeball who’s walleyed appearance immediately propelled him away from ever playing good guy or hero roles and accelerated him straight into the world of bad guys. He mostly starred in westerns and early on in his illustrious career, usually played one of the thugs that the main antagonist would employ to do his dirty work. Conversely, in real life, he was a kind man who was remembered as a great friend. But that’s not the point!
He played several emotionless killers, most notably “Snaky” in the western classic “Once Upon A Time In The West” but as he was used more and more (in both film and television) in humorous roles it was discovered that Jack had a (forgive the bad rhyme) knack for the comedic. Roles for such Disney classics as “Hot Lead, Cold Feet” and “The Apple Dumpling Gang” cemented his longevity in both acting career and genre.
One of his most remarkable performances was his portrayal of drug abusing Doctor Nikolas Van Helsing in the 1981 comedy “The Canonball Run” where he held his own against such acting talents as Dom DeLuise, Dean Martin, Burt Reynolds, Farrah Fawcett, Sammy Davis Jr., and Roger Moore. If you haven’t seen this film, do so, as it is a great and sweeping comedy that will have you gaping at all of the cameo appearances that occur during its 95 minute run. Also, look for Adrienne Barbeau in her souped up suit while she drives a Lamborgini at scandalous speeds.
Sadly, Elam left our lives in 2003 after a life of entertainment that spanned 50 years and over 100 full length features. Since his television appearances are beyond count, here are some of his movies, should you be inclined to check out some of his work. Within this list, I have tried to give equal time to the sleazeball as well as the funnyman roles that both worked together to make Jack Elam famous:
* The Far Country
* Jubal
* The Way West
* Once Upon a Time in the West
* Cockeyed Cowboys of Calico County
* Hannie Caulder
* The Apple Dumpling Gang and The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again
* Cannonball Run and Cannonball Run II
* Suburban Commando
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