Jack Elam, 82

Veteran character actor Jack Elam has died of congestive heart failure at his home in Oregon. He was 82.

Elam was best known for playing heavys, thugs, and gangsters during a career which spanned more than four decades. His trademark feature was a squinty, wandering eye, which lent him a menacing appearance. He lost sight in the eye at a Boy Scout troop meeting, roughhousing with a fellow scout.

Elam appeared in dozens of TV series, including Cheyenne, Bonanza and Gunsmoke. He performed in over a hundred feature films, including Vera Cruz, Kiss Me Deadly, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Support Your Local Gunfighter and The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

Elam originally worked as a bookkeeper, theater supervisor and auditor, before offering his accounting services to a film director in exchange for roles in three westerns. The first was 1950's The Sundowners starring Robert Preston, which launched his long career.